HIGHLAND – The Metro East Bears wanted to set a tone going into this week’s Illinois Fifth Division American Legion baseball tournament.
That they did, getting out to a lead early and defeating Steeleville 11-0 in six innings in their tournament opener Monday afternoon at Highland’s Glik Park. The win sent the Bears into a game against Aviston at noon today; a win over Aviston would send them into a game at either 3 p.m. or 7 p.m. Wednesday in the double-elimination tournament, which sends the winner to Rantoul for next week’s Legion state tournament.
“We talked about that in practice, coming out ready to play at 12 o’clock as opposed to playing at 1 or 1:30,” said Bears manager Ken Schaake. “We wanted them to come out an be attacking offensively and our pitchers to be ready to throw. Our pitchers have been pretty good this year throwing strikes and keeping us in ballgames all the way through
“The offense – sometimes in some of the early games – we have not been hitting on all cylinders, but today, I think we were; we got a couple of runs in the first inning, a couple of runs in the second inning. We were 4-5 runs up going into the third inning; that takes a little pressure off the pitcher and puts more pressure on them.”
The Bears got off to a quick start when Dylan Burris opened with a single and went to second on a wild pitch, Joel Quirin singling in Burris before going to third on a Blake Vandiver double. Quirin scored when Corey Price lifted a sacrifice fly to right to put the Bears up 2-0; another run came home in the second when singled in Storm Coffman, who had drawn a two-out walk and advanced on a Burris single, was sent home on a Kade Burns RBI single. Burris attempted to score on the single, but was thrown out at home; the Bears still held a 3-0 lead through two innings.
Metro East put up two more runs each in the third and the fifth before scoring four times in the sixth to invoke the 10-run rule, Corey Price having a RBI double that scored Quirin in the third and the Bears taking advantage of Steeleville mistakes and walks to score.
Burris went 3-for-5 with a run scored on the day for the Bears, with Burns 2-for-4 with a RBI and run scored, Quirin 2-for-3 with a RBI and three runs scored, Vandiver 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored, Price 2-for-3 with a double, three RBIs and two runs scored and Steven Pattan and Coffman a run scored each.
Host team Highland won their tournament opener Monday night, defeating Carmi 5-0; Herrin and Newton were scheduled to play each other following the Bears game Monday afternoon, but a result was not available. Highland and the Herrin-Newton winner are scheduled to play at either 3 p.m. or 7 p.m. today as the tournament continues. The championship game is set for 3 p.m. Saturday, with a second game to be played if needed at 7 p.m. Saturday.
