GRANITE CITY – Everything was clicking for Edwardsville’s baseball team Tuesday afternoon.
Especially Jake Garella.
Garella’s fastball, change-up, slider – everything he threw at Granite City’s batting order, it was on; the Warriors were handcuffed by Garella’s pitch selection, so much so, Garella retired the first 14 GCHS batters he faced. The only time Garella’s count reached 3-0 to the Warriors’ B.J. Niesporek in the bottom of the fifth, he threw a strike.
Niesporek, though, got ahold of Garella’s next pitch and found the gap in right-center for a double to end both Garella’s bid for a no-hitter and perfect game.
Not to worry, though – the Edwardsville offense had done plenty of work to give the Tigers a 16-0, five-inning win in a Southwestern Conference game at Granite City’s Babe Champion Field; Garella wound up with a one-hit gem to put the Tigers’ record to 15-4 overall, 5-2 in the SWC.
“Everything felt great,” Garella said. “Fastball felt great, I had a good feel for my curveball and I was locating real well.”
When asked about going out for the fifth inning, three outs away from a perfect game, Garella said “I just didn’t think about it. I knew it was happening when I went out there and saw the scoreboard (in right-center field), but no, you can’t really think about that too much because it’ll get into your head, but I felt I did a good job with it.
“I left it (the 3-1 pitch to Niesporek that broke up the perfect game) a little over the plate and (Niesporek) put a pretty good swing on it.”
“He’s got good stuff,” Tiger coach Tim Funkhouser said of Garella, “and he’s able to keep a lot of teams off-balance in his pitches; Jake’s a composed guy, a veteran guy who’s been part of our varsity for four years and kind of knows what to expect and expects himself to do well. We’re glad he’s on our team.”
Of Niesporek’s hit, Funkhouser said, “their hitter put a good swing on it, so you credit the hitter too. We’re very proud of how Jake performed today.”
Warrior starter Andy Hailey allowed a first-inning double to Cole Cimarolli with one out, but retired the next two batters to end the inning; the Warriors went down in order in the first, but the Tiger bats wasted no time coming alive in the second. Collin Clayton opened the inning with a bloop double to left, then Tyler Stamer was walked to put runners at first and second. Mark Smith then struck a double down the line in left to bring home Clayton and Stamer to get EHS on the board.
Joe Wallace then drew a walk before a wild pitch allowed Smith and Wallace to advance; Smith then scored on a Reid Henderson grounder to short for the first out, Wallace moving to third. A Dylan Burris single brought in Wallace and doubles from Cimarolli and Garella brought in two more runs for a 6-0 EHS lead.
The Tigers scored again in the third and then scored nine times in the top of the fifth on four hits. Garella was having no trouble retiring the Warrior lineup, allowing only the Niesporek double with two out in the fifth. Garella wound up with seven strikeouts on the day, including five in a row in the second and third innings.
“We go out 0-0 in the first inning and we hit a couple of balls hard and right at them,” said Warrior coach Scott Smallie. “We come out in the second inning and they hit a couple down the line and it kind of opened up the floodgates on our guys. Our guys threw strikes; you can’t complain about that. That’s a good-hitting team; they earned everything they had today, they hit the ball well.”
Garella was 2-for-4 on the day at the plate with a double and two RBIs; Burris was 2-for-3 with two RBIs, Cimarolli 2-for-3 with two doubles and a RBI, Trey Riley 1-for-3, Clayton 1-for-3 with a double, Joel Quirin 1-for-1 with a RBI, Smith 1-for-3 with the double and two RBIs and Daniel Reed 1-for-2 with a double and two RBIs.
Edwardsville travels to Centralia for a 4:30 p.m. Wednesday encounter with the Orphans.
