EDWARDSVILLE - Edwardsville's baseball team is one step away from this weekend's IHSA Class 4A state semifinals at Silver Creek Field in Joliet.
To get to the state semifinal, they have to get past Orland Park Sandburg in today's Champaign Super-Sectional at Illinois Field on the University of Illinois campus; the game is set for 4:30 p.m., with the winner taking on the Crestwood Standard Bank 2 Super-Sectional winner between Burbank St. Laurence and Naperville Neuqua Valley at 5 p.m. Friday in Joliet. The final is set for 5 p.m. Saturday at the home of the Frontier League's Joliet Slammers.
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Monday's game is the deepest the Tigers have gotten into the postseason since reaching the 2014 U of I super, when they were eliminated by New Lenox Providence Catholic 6-5; the Celtics eventually won the first of three straight state championships after defeating Edwardsville. The Celtics' three-year reign as state 4A champions came to an end in last Wednesday's Homewood-Flossmoor Sectional semifinal when the Eagles defeated Providence 12-10; Sandburg got to today's game with a 7-3 win over New Lenox Lincoln-Way Central Saturday.
The Tigers won their way to Illinois Field with a 6-2 win over O'Fallon in the Bloomington Sectional semifinal in Collinsville, then blanked Normal West 7-0 in Saturday's sectional final to reach the super-sectional.
“We've been to the super-sectional twice before (in 2011 and 2014, the Celtics eliminating the Tigers both times) since Class 4A started (in 2008, when the IHSA expanded baseball from two to four classes),” said Tiger coach Tim Funkhouser, “but we haven't gotten over the hump yet. We're looking forward to the challenge.”
Funkhouser and the Eagles' coach, Jim Morsovillo, played together at Western Illinois and have known each other for a long time. “We played together at Western; he was a second baseman and I was a shortstop,” Funkhouser said. “He's a great guy and he's done very well with them.”
Sandburg features several players who are heading to collegiate programs such as Notre Dame, Illinois and Illinois-Chicago. “They can play,” Funkhouser said. “It's going to be a fun game in an enjoyable setting.”
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