Suspense…excitement… all the way through the entire ballgame.

A brief break in the winter-like weather provided us with some excellent high school games. This should be expected as we move down the schedule into mid-April now. Why? Players begin to make “plays” as they should and games tighten up! As the temps dropped later in the week, so did the hitting. The ball just doesn’t carry as far; it seems to me, in these frigid temperatures.

DeSoto held a 9-7 lead entering into the bottom of the 7^th in their Jefferson County Conference game against Hillsboro. The Dragons were hoping to hand the Hawks their first conference defeat. Hillsboro scored a run during the first 3 batters of the inning. They loaded the bases with 2 outs. DeSoto brought in Blake Bennett, a usual starter, to try to close the door. He did just that as he induced the batter to ground out softly to the 3B who stepped on the bag to end this exciting, yet very frigid game. The Jeff Co league is now really scrambled! The most exciting plays were Hillsboro LF Zach Winchester making two diving catches!  He made one grab as he laid out towards the foul line and later on, his terrific catch in deep left-center was also a full length dive that saved several runs for the Hawks.

Orchard Farm carried a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the 6^th. Westminster crossed the plate three times to gain the lead. The Eagles tied it with 1 run in the 7^th only to see Westminster push across the winning tally in the bottom of the 9^th to win a thrilling 4-3 victory. Ben Turner led the Wildcats with 3 hits Josh Baum and Mike Lane each had 3 hits for Orchard Farm, who out hit WCA 12-7 for the contest!

Howell North scored single runs in the 4^th, 5th, 6^th innings to shut out the Troy Trojans 3-0 in GAC Conference action.

Webster Groves(5-6)had an up-down week. In Mid-week, the Statesman whitewashed Eureka 2-0 on a 3 hitter. On Friday, on a game heard here on www.prepcasts.com, WG held a 5-1 lead entering the bottom of the 7th against rival, Kirkwood High School^. (3-5) Bryan Currinder had provided the punch with 3 hits, an RBI and 3 runs scored to propel WG to this big lead. With two outs in this final inning and WG still leading 5-2, the Pioneers singled in a run, scored on an error, took a walk to load the bases. Mark Bearden drove home two runs to tie the game on a single. The next batter, 9^th of the inning, Steve Dressel sent the Pioneer fans home with his game winning single!

SLUGFESTS…

Often in non-conference games there are these slugfests. Teams hold back their top tier pitchers for conference games. This leads to more hits, walks, more balls put into play –leading to errors. All this make for some wild affairs. Strafford led 12-5 entering the final inning only to see Hollister score 7 runs to win a 13-12 game. Each team had 13 hits while 10 errors were committed total by the two teams.

Similarly at Urbana, Skyline scored 2 runs in bottom of 7^th to squeak by Warsaw 14-13. Both defenses were leaky as 13 total errors opened the doors for many of these runs. What a game…

How about the Kickapoo Chiefs—scored runs in every innings, smacked out 13 hits but had to rally as they trailed 15-10 at mid-way point of 5 ^th inning against the Carthage Tigers. The Chiefs won in a football like score 18-15! Josh Keatts had a double and HR for the Chiefs while Dylan Samuelson chalked up 4 hits for Carthage in this slugfest. I’m sure that the concessionaires absolutely loved this ballgame!

Rally Caps-sometimes successful, sometimes…

CBC plated 4 runs in the final win to snatch victory from defeat as they upended ST Charles West 7-4 in a non-league win.

The last at-bat was the difference as Ft Zumwalt North scored the tying and game-winning runs to defeat Timberland 4-3 in GAC play. Jordan Hankins led the way with 3 hits, including 2 doubles, RBI and a run scored for the winners.

Coasting into the 7^th with a 13-4 lead, the Seckman Jaguars were forced to hang on as Oakville crossed the plate 8 times in the final inning only to fall a run short and lose 13-12 to the Jaguars. Ryan Huck(Oakville) was 4 for 4, 4 RBI’, 2 run scored, a double and triple in the losing cause. Seckaman was led the slugging duo of Corey Johnson & Kyule Leslie who each banged out 3 hits and each drove home 4 runs .

PITCHING GEMS

Chris Roth (Saxony Lutheran) threw a complete 4-hitter while striking out 8 Oak Ridge batters as Crusadors knocked off the Oak Ridge Blue Jays 5-2. Roth also was 2 for 3 from the plate, scored a run while retiring 18 of the first 21 batters he faced !  All this was done with the temps in the low 40’s and a brisk wind blowing..ugh…that doesn’t sound good.

Ozark Tigers (8-3) Ethan Mather was just two outs away from a no-no over the defending state Champion, Blue Springs (7-4), when Wildcat Nate Baker blooped a hit into center field. Nevertheless, the Tigers 4-0 win beat Wildcat ace, Kyle Barbeck as they had 9 hits along the way. Look for a rematch down the road!

This week, www.prepcasts.com widens our coverage. In addition to some great baseball games, we’ll be at the mic to bring you girls lacrosse action.  Last week, Prepcasts announced our first Water Polo match as we covered the DeSmet Tournament Championship. The replay of that game, and all other games, can be heard 24-7-365 FREE on Prepcasts—check it out!