BELLEVILLE – Jack Lanxon had thrown two innings the day before – the final two innings of Belleville West’s two-day, 18-inning marathon win over crosstown rival Belleville East in the semifinals of West’s IHSA Class 4A regional.
Lanxon then got the ball Saturday morning – and faced a formidable task.
Find a way to hold off Edwardsville.
It took a bit, but Lanxon, a junior, did just that as the Maroons took advantage of a couple of Tiger miscues in the top of the fourth to score six runs and went on to eliminate Edwardsville 8-4 Saturday morning and advance to the Bloomington Sectional at Illinois Wesleyan, where they’ll take on O’Fallon – 2-1 winners over Alton in the Alton Regional final Saturday afternoon – at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the sectional semifinals; the sectional final is set for 11 a.m. June 4 at Illinois Wesleyan, with the winner moving into the Champaign Supersectional at the University of Illinois.
The Tigers were eliminated with a record of 29-8; the Maroons move on with a mark of 24-8.
Edwardsville had taken an early lead on the strength of a two-run homer from Tyler Stamer that had given them a 3-0 lead in the first, but from that point, Lanxon managed to work his way out of jams that could have put the game firmly in Edwardsville’s grasp and Tiger coach Tim Funkhouser acknowledged it.
“We just couldn’t add to (the lead) and we had a couple of opportunities to where we needed to just pick away and add runs, and we weren’t able to do that,” Funkhouser said. “The inning where they scored their runs (the fourth), that was the difference in the game, but really, on our end, the parts where we needed to keep pushing runners across – credit their pitcher (Lanxon).
“He threw two innings yesterday and flashed around the outfield the last couple of days – what a great competitor. He made some good pitches and we just didn’t come through, especially with two outs. We had runners on base with two outs several different times; even if we just add a run here or there, I think it puts a lot more pressure on them and they probably have to get into their (bullpen).”
Maroon coach Todd Baltz’s biggest concern going into Saturday’s game was simple – pitching. “Our biggest concern was pitching,” Baltz said, especially coming off the Maroons’ 6-5 win over the Lancers Thursday and Friday, “who we were going to bring back; we went through all the scenarios and put our best offensive lineup out there and our best defensive lineup; we figured we were going to have to hit with them – we gave it to Jack and said ‘Jack, just go as long as you can’ and he decided he was going to go the whole time.
“He pitched a heck of a game. I told him ‘two innings today, this is yours to win or lose, so go out there and (win the game)’, and he did.”
One of Edwardsville’s biggest bugaboos this season – consistency on defense – rose its ugly head in the top of the fourth when the Maroons scored six times thanks, in part, to a couple of errors at critical times that led West score. “We needed to be more consistent,” Funkhouser said. “We anticipated that we’d be a real good defensive club, and we showed that at times, but we weren’t as consistent as any of our coaches or players would have wanted.
“Some of that caught up with us today, but really, from our end, pushing the runs across – we get a couple more, we don’t get into situations where we have to make cover plays or try to force plays or whatever, but I’m really proud of the way our guys competed all year.”
Four straight singles by Logan Betz, Cal Kossina, Lanxon and Luke Vanlandingham, with an error, helped the Maroons score three runs to tie the game, forcing the Tigers to bring in Andrew Yancik for starter Tyler Hosto on the mound. Another error, a fielder’s choice and two singles brought in three more runs to put the Maroons up 6-3 through three-and-a-half innings. It held up until the bottom of the sixth, where Joe Wallace reached on an error to start the inning and was sacrificed over by Yancik, where Wallace was brought home on a Collin Clayton RBI double. Clayton went to third on a fly to right deep in the corner and Jake Garella was intentionally walked after he had gotten three hits of Lanxon on the day to put runners at the corners, but Lanxon got Joel Quiriin to pop to first to end the inning.
West scored twice more in the top of the seventh and Lanxon struck out the side in the bottom of the seventh to send the Maroons to the sectional.
Garella was 3-for-3 with a double, RBI and run scored on the day; with Stamer 1-for-3 with the homer, two RBIs and a run scored, Clayton 1-for-3 with a double and RBI, Wallace 1-for-4 with a run scored, Cole Hansel 1-for-3 and Cole Cimarolli had a run scored. Hosto took the loss, going three-plus innings and giving up two earned runs on three hits while striking out one. Lanxon went the distance for the win, conceding three earned runs on seven hits while dismissing eight by strikeout.
