EDWARDSVILLE – Nick Chiarodo had a two-run homer as part of a three-hit day at the plate, and Tony Eberlin struck out four in a complete game on the mound, as Edwardsville outright clinched the Southwestern Conference championship with a 5-0 win over Collinsville Thursday afternoon, May 14, 2026, at Tom Pile Field.
The Tigers finished the conference season 11-1, with O’Fallon in second place and currently at 8-2 after a 2-0 win at Belleville West on Thursday. Edwardsville also won for the ninth time in its last 11 games and looks good for the IHSA Class 4A season, which will begin in less than two weeks.
All of which made Edwardsville coach Tim Funkhouser a very happy man in his postgame interview.
“I’m really proud of our guys,” Funkhouser said on the back-to-back conference baseball championship for his team. “They did a great job of competing throughout the whole season, and it’s exciting to win the conference.”
Eberlin has been the ace of a very good pitching staff overall, as well as a linchpin of the starting rotation, and Thursday was another example of how well he’s pitched this year. He also used the opportunity to shout out notable players who made major contributions to the Tigers this season.
“He’s been so consistent,” Funkhouser said. “I think he’s been absolutely one of the best pitchers in the area, and has been just consistently attacking the zone, using his stuff, and has just been outstanding. So, I think all the players know we just have to push some runs across, let him do his thing, and he’s done that for us all year. He was a huge component.
“A guy like Miller Dunnill also pitched a lot for us. In the conference, all really, all our other pitchers, too, impacted different games during our season, and we had multiple guys, and Hunter Baugh is another one who has had an outstanding year.
“Today, it ended up being Andrew McCutchen and Nick Chiarodo who were big performers at the plate for us,” Funkhouser continued. “(Jack) Kirgan’s continued to take better at-bats as the season’s gone on, and has been a big performer for us. (Zane) Maxwell’s been outstanding for us. He started the year playing third, had been outstanding at short, and is a versatile guy.
“So many guys have impacted our club. It’s hard to give them the due respect they really deserve, but they love being in the moment. You have to be really ready to play each day in the Southwestern Conference.”
Although the Tigers repeated as conference champions, the work still isn’t quite finished.
“The conference championship, like some people say, well, you’re defending champs, whatever,” Funkhouser said. “But every year, you’ve got to go try to claim it. I think it’s a great analogy, just going out and getting it, and not waiting or trying to hold on or something. You’re just trying to capture something.
“You do that with a daily approach and practice, as well as the games. So, I couldn’t be more impressed with our guys. We have two more weeks to get better. On Friday, we’ll have our Senior Day, which we’ll be excited to celebrate our time we have had with them, and they have had with us. Then, we’ll continue to go back to practice and have more games. And soon, we’ll start the postseason and try to give it a go.”
The Kahoks played a pair of tough games with the Tigers on Tuesday and Thursday, but in the end, Edwardsville came up with the answers to Collinsville’s challenges.
“I would agree as well, too,” said first year Collinsville head coach Matt Pomerantz, “I am proud of our guys, because, maybe in year past, we wouldn’t have competed as much as we have been, but the last few games, even though we lost, there’s some things that we’ve learned that we need to work o, and our guys competed and gave us a chance.”
The Tigers jumped out in front in the home half of the second, when Joel Fields stroked a single to left, and Chiarodo hit a 2-0 pitch over the fence in left-center for a homer, Fields scoring ahead of Chiarodo to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead. Edwardsville doubled the lead in the fourth, starting with a one-out single by Chiarodo. One out later, Sutton Leas was hit by a pitch, Maxwell walked to load the bases, and McCutchen came through with a two-run single that scored Chiarodo and courtesy runnerTy Hunt to give the Tigers a 4-0 lead.
In the Edwardsville sixth, Maxwell led off with a single to center, went to second on an errant pickoff throw, with the first baseman charged with the error, went to third on a wild pitch, and scored on Baugh’s RBI single to center. to make it 5-0. Eberlin pitched well throughout, getting out of trouble at opportune times to help preserve the shutout and the win for Edwardsville to give the Tigers the conference championship.
Chiarodo led the way for Edwardsville with his three hits, the two-run homer producing his only RBIs on the day, while Baugh came up with three hits and an RBI, McCutchen had two hits and two RBIs, and Kirgan, Fields, Nolan Vojak, and Maxwell all had one hit each. Eberlin went all the way on the mound, allowing no runs on four hits, walking two, and striking out four.
Ben Tillman had two of the hits for the Kahoks, while Tyler Hunterbrinker had the other two hits. Roman Pomerantz went five innings on the mound and was charged with the loss, four earned runs on 10 hits, walking two, and striking out two. While Mason Ponder pitched the sixth inning, giving up an unearned run on two hits, walking none, and fanning one.
Collinsville is now 10-16, and hosts Roxana on Friday afternoon at Fletcher Field in Woodland Park, plays at Centralia on Monday, and meets Alton in their final conference series of the season, May 19 at home and May 21 at Alton, with all games starting at 4:30 p.m.
Edwardsville is now 20-10, and hosts Jersey for Senior Day game on Friday, hosts Rochester on May 20, then concludes its home stand May 22 against Triad, with all games starting at 4:30 p.m.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
