FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS – Sunday was a fairly good day on the field for the Metro East Bears.
Off the field, however, things took an unexpected turn, and as a result, the Bears are on the outside looking in for today’s Firecracker Classic semifinals and finals.
The Bears defeated Ballwin, Mo., 6-1 in a Sunday morning group-play game, then dropped a 3-1 decision to Jackson, Mo., to put them at 3-1 in their group at George Lanxon Field at Longacre Park and the apparent wild-card spot, having conceded eight runs in their four games to Jefferson City’s (Mo.) 10.
Tournament officials, however, announced after Sunday night’s Bears loss that the team had been disqualified for using an ineligible player, with Jefferson City being awarded the wild-card spot. Jeff City will meet Jackson at 1 p.m. today, following the 10 a.m. semifinal game between Valmeyer and Belleville, with the winners meeting for the championship at 3 p.m.; all games will be at Belleville’s Whitey Herzog Field.
Jackson defeated the Bears thanks to a three-run fourth inning that was simply Jackson finding gaps for base hits. “They just put the ball in play,” said Bears manager Ken Schaake. “They weren’t sitting on one particular pitch because we started batters off with different (pitches); not necessarily all right-handers were getting the same pitch – they hit the ball. They found a gap in our defense – line drives through the holes on both sides, nothing up the middle, but they put the ball in play; they swung the bat all night long.
“I give (Storm) Coffman a lot of credit because, other than that one bad inning, he held us in there with three runs.”
Jackson pitcher Colten Weber kept the Bears at bay after the first inning. “He just had pretty good control,” Schaake said of Weber. “He was around the plate all night long and we did hit the ball; they made some good plays on us. We had a ball hit into the gap and they ran it down; they made the plays.”
The Bears’ only run against Jackson came in the bottom of the first when Blake Vandiver struck a two-out double down the line in left and then went to third when Jackson mishandled the relay; Vandiver scored on a subsequent single to put the Bears ahead. Jackson, though, took the lead in the fourth when Tyler Martin, Drew Brown and Jay Newell opened with consecutive singles off Coffman to load the bases; Braden Dobbs then singled in Martin to tie the game before Weber reached on a fielder’s choice that brought in Brown to give Jackson the lead.
Tyler Knight then singled in Newell to increase the lead to 3-1 for Jackson, and that’s how it stayed the rest of the way, with Weber retiring 13 of the last 14 Bear hitters he faced. Coffman himself had only one more jam he faced in the sixth, when two runners reached base with two out, but Coffman struck out Knight to end the threat.
Weber wound up dismissing 11 Bears by strikeout for the game, including the last four in a row, to get the win; Coffman had four strikeouts in taking the loss.
METRO EAST 6, BALLWIN 1: In Sunday morning’s Bears win over Ballwin, Kade Burns got the ball and shut Ballwin down, giving up just one run in the sixth while scattering six hits and striking out six.
“I was trying to throw the ball over the plate and let them put it in play,” Burns said, “just making my pitches over the plate; sometimes I left them a little too much over the plate and they put it in play. They were a solid-hitting team, they hit the ball hard a lot of the time.”
“I told them they ran the bases well today; they were very aggressive,” Schaake said. “They took some bases when they had the opportunity; you have to take advantage of the opportunities when they come up and get baserunners to third base.”
The Bears scored in the bottom of the third when they loaded the bases on walks to Konnor Loewen and Burns and a single from Joel Quirin before Andrew Yancik, courtesy-running for Loewen, scored on a Vandiver sacrifice fly to center; two more runs each came in the fourth and the fifth thanks to sac flies and walks from Ballwin pitching, with one more run coming in the sixth.
Next up for the Bears is a 7 p.m. Wednesday game against American-National of Hazelwood, Mo., at SIU-Edwardsville’s Roy Lee Field, then Smithton in a District 22 game at 6 p.m. Friday at Alton High School’s Redbird Field before meeting Shelby County in a 5:30 p.m. Saturday doubleheader at Edwardsville’s Hoppe Park before heading into the District 22 playoffs the following week.
