Edwardsville's summer baseball team took on some familiar faces Monday night.
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Again.
For the second time this summer, the Tigers met up with the Quakes, a team that has several former EHS players on its roster, at Tom Pile Field Monday night. The Tigers took a 7-5 win over the Quakes in a contest that came about after a scheduled game the Tigers had on Tuesday was canceled. The Quakes had an opening on their schedule and were able to fill in.
“I told the guys that this was like playing in your backyard against your friends,” said Tiger coach Tim Funkhouser. “They all knew the guys on the team since they played with one another in the past; it was a lot of fun to play them again.
“With midweek games, while we always want to win, the main idea is to get some reps in and work on things.”
The Tigers have taken part in a pair of tournaments and played another game since the Independence Day weekend. Over the holiday weekend, they hosted a tournament at both Tom Pile Field and at Roy Lee Field at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, where they won their four games in pool play before losing 6-3 in 11 innings to St. Louis Recruits Black in the semifinals; the Tigers led 6-3 in the seventh before the Recruits tied it, then came back from two runs down in the ninth to tie the game again before falling.
After the tournament, the Tigers traveled to O'Fallon and defeated the Panthers' summer team 14-3 in a nine-inning contest before traveling to Bloomington-Normal for a tournament this past weekend, where they split a pair of games, falling 12-3 to DuPage Training Academy Red but defeating the Midwest Eagles 8-1 in a tournament disrupted by rain.
“I like how we've been going about our business,” Funkhouser said in an interview prior to last weekend's tournament. “We're competing well, pitching well, have had some good outings. We're really enjoying playing the game and getting some good at-bats.”
Monday night, the Quakes got on the board first when Tyler Hosto, who got the ball for the Tigers, had some early control problems and walked Matt Zielonko and Jordan Hovey before Jacob Wilson reached on an error. Hosto then issued a walk to Aaron Jackson to bring in Zielonko, but got out of the inning with 1-2-3 double play, Fahd Shakeel grounding to Hosto for a force at home before Joe Wallace threw to first to retire Shakeel. The Tigers grabbed the lead in the second when Cole Hansel singled and Joe Wallace brought him in with a triple. Will Messer then stroked a one-out single to drive in Wallace to put the Tigers up 2-1 through two.
The Quakes took the lead back in the third when Zielonko led off with a home run over the boards in left-center, and Mitchell Krebs followed with a single to bring up Hovey, who doubled in Krebs to put the Quakes back on top. Jordan Yenne led off the bottom of the third with a walk and Nathan French was hit by a pitch to bring up Cole Cimarolli, who singled in both Yenne and French to give the lead back to the Tigers. It stayed that way until the fifth, when back-to-back Hovey and Wilson doubles tied the game at four.
Edwardsville took the lead for good in the bottom of the fifth after a series of walks and an error led to three runs, Tyler Lewis, Messer and Tyler Stamer all scoring to put the Tigers up 7-4. The Quakes got a run back in the seventh when Krebs was walked home, but the Tigers struck out the side to end the threat and the game.
Edwardsville will close out its summer schedule this weekend by hosting the DSP Midwest Classic at both Tom Pile and Roy Lee fields, with play commencing on Friday and running through Sunday.
