EDWARDSVILLE – Three Civic Memorial errors in the bottom of the fourth inning helped lead to five runs that broke open a close game, giving Edwardsville a 5-2 win over the Eagles in a non-conference baseball game played Friday night at Tom Pile Field.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
The game was a tight pitcher’s dual until the fourth, when CM broke through for a run before the Tigers broke open the game with the five runs, while having five hits in the inning.
It was a successful day all around for Edwardsville, who had defeated Southwestern Conference rivals Alton earlier in the day on a seventh-inning run 6-5. And the fourth inning against CM provided for all the runs the Tigers would need.
“Yeah, we had that big fourth inning, and that was a big difference for us,” said Edwardsville head coach Tim Funkhouser. “We were able to continue to push some runs across, and boy, our pitching was outstanding. Grant Schaefer was awesome on the bump, and then (Jonathon) Yancik followed up as well, and even though they scratched a run out of both those guys, they pitched well enough to put up zeros there.”
Edwardsville also benefitted from timely hitting in both games, along with taking advantage of mistakes to score key runs.
“First game was a battle of both directions for both teams,” Funkhouser said. “And I love the way both teams that we played tonight compete, and we were fortunate to come away with both victories because we didn’t play as well in the first game; we played a little cleaner baseball in the second one. It was a good day of baseball to get out there, and even with some of the things we didn’t do as well, I like the way our guys have been competing and like I mentioned earlier, our pitching throughout the whole day, and really the season, has been really solid, and we had some big plate appearances too, to push us through.”
Although the Eagles had the one bad inning, CM hung in, competed well and kept battling throughout the proceedings.
“Yeah, it was a pretty good ball game, really,” said CM head coach Nick Smith. “Had a couple of hiccups and the bad inning, but other than that, I thought we played pretty well. I thought our pitchers did a real nice job; I thought Zach Vaughn and Keaton Loewen both threw the ball well. It was a good ball game, we just stay away from that one bad inning, and they come out on top.”
The Eagles competed both offensively and defensively, and Smith was very pleased with that.
“Well, you know, we want to win, but at the same time, if we go out, we compete, you really can’t complain,” Smith said. “I thought we really took some good at-bats, battled, got into some deep counts, got on base a couple of times where we had some chances. We had some multiple baserunners a couple of times, and then in the sixth, we had bases loaded with the top of the order up. I’ll take that opportunity any day of the week because I think we’re going to cash in on it. We got one out of it, and credit to their guy, he kept us off-balance enough to get through the inning, you know. That’s where it went.”
It was a very tight pitcher’s dual to start, with Schaefer and Vaughn getting their jobs done. Nick Walker led off the game by drawing a walk, then two outs later, Gavin Lyday reached on an error by the third baseman, but Schaefer got out of the inning by making an alert throw to third to force Walker.
Meanwhile, Vaughn allowed only four baserunners in the first three innings, fanning four and conceding three hits and a walk. Schaefer allowed five baserunners in the first three innings, allowing one hit while walking two and striking out one.
The Eagles broke the ice in the top of the fourth, starting with a leadoff walk to Bryce Zupan. Will Buhs sacrificed Zupan to second, and Zupan advanced to third on a ground out to the shortstop. Zupan then scored when the third baseman couldn’t handle a Nic Vaughn grounder for an error, bringing in the first run of the game. Drake Walker then singled, but Nick Walker grounded back to the box to end the inning.
The Tigers struck for their only five runs in the home half, starting with a Josh Ohl single. Ohl advanced on a wild pitch, then scored one out later on Jacob Kitchen’s RBI single to right-center. Kitchen then stole second and came home on a Gavin Huebner RBI single to give Edwardsville the lead at 2-1. Weston Slemmer, batting for Schaefer, singled Huebner to third, then stole second. Hayden Moore struck out, then Blake Burris singled home Huebner to make it 3-1. Burris took third on an error, Drake Westcott was intentionally walked, and Max Ringering hit a grounder to short, but the shortstop threw wildly into short right field, allowing two more runs to score and sending Westcott to third. Westcott was then picked off third by the catcher to end the inning.
A walk to Loewen and singles by Nic Vaughn and Drake Walker loaded the bases with nobody out to start the CM sixth, and Nick Walker then hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Loewen, cutting the lead to 5-2. Yancik struck out both Zach Vaughn and Chandler Powell to end the inning. The Eagles went down in order in the seventh to make the 5-2 final.
The Eagles are now 11-10 on the season and will play two important Mississippi Valley Conference games this week, going to Mascoutah on Tuesday, then hosting Jersey on Thursday, with both games starting at 4:15 p.m. Smith knows what his club needs to do to be successful going into the stretch run.
“Well, I think we just have to continue to compete and work hard every day,” Smith said, “and shore up some things defensively. I think we’ve got a chance to compete in the postseason, and we’ll find a lot out. We want to play our best baseball towards the end of May, and give ourselves a chance.”
The Tigers are now 18-3 and have their Southwestern Conference series this week against Belleville West on Tuesday and Thursday, then host their annual round-robin tournament next weekend at Tom Pile Field, and it’s an event that Funkhouser is looking ahead to, as well as the upcoming postseason.
“Yeah, it’ll be coming around the corner, and we push in next week,” Funkhouser said. “We’ve got Belleville West in our conference series, and then we have our tournament next week. Within the tournament, we have T-Town joining us, Teutopolis is joining us this year instead of Lockport, so we still have Highland and Chatham Glenwood, and we’ll be having that round-robin go through. So, a lot of baseball to be played next week, and hopefully, the weather will play out; if not, we’ll just keep working and grinding and trying to get better, and look forward to getting back out there again.”
Funkhouser also gave a shoutout to senior third baseman Jack Cooper, who played his final high school game on Friday as he prepared for season-ending shoulder surgery on Tuesday. Funkhouser saluted Cooper for all of his contributions to the Tigers’ baseball program.
“Jack Cooper, he was playing third for us tonight, and we DH’ed for him,” Funkhouser said. “He’s had an injury that he battled through at the beginning of the year, and he’s set for surgery on Tuesday, so it’s kind of a bittersweet day for us. We’re fortunate to get him out there and finish on the field tonight, but we’re going to miss him being an active player because he’s going to have surgery Tuesday for his labrum. It’s kind of a bittersweet moment getting him out there, but he’s done a great job of competing for us the over the last three years, and we’re thinking of him.”Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
