Edwardsville comes from behind to defeat East
Lancers drop to 5-7 in conference play
The Lancers led 4-0 after three and a half innings, but host Edwardsville scored twice in the bottom of the fourth and added three runs in the fifth and one more in the sixth to post a 6-4 Southwestern Conference victory.
With the win, the Tigers improved to 24-4 overall and 9-3 in the SWC heading into Wednesday's game at Belleville West. Through Tuesday, West was 8-2 in league play while O'Fallon was 9-3."It was a good comeback for us," said Edwardsville coach Tim Funkhouser. "Dominic (Patterozzi) gave up some home runs and was able to battle through it. I thought the key to the game was for him to keep pitching and keep eating up innings and give us a chance.
"We were able to peck away with a couple runs (in the fourth inning). Elliott Frey (who delivered a game-tying triple in the fifth inning) was seeing the ball pretty well today and felt good with his swing. He got through the middle of that ball really well."
Belleville East, meanwhile, dropped to 14-10 overall and 5-7 in league play.
"We came out and played well," said Lancers coach Todd Blomberg. "We knew they weren't going to just lay down for us. I thought for except a 10-minute span, we played really well. I'm encouraged by how we've played in our last couple games. If we could subtract the fifth inning, that would be great, but we can't do that.
"I'm disappointed with the loss, but it's not like we lost to a bunch of schmucks over there. That's a pretty good club."
East scored twice in the top of the first inning. Josh Hoguet got a two-out single to right field and Jake Powell followed with an RBI double to right center field. Mike Snyder's double down the left field line made the score 2-0.
The Lancers extended their lead to 3-0 on Jordan Phillips' leadoff home to right field in the second inning. Bryan Ganim accounted for East's fourth run with a leadoff homer to center field in the third inning. Both shots came on two-strike counts.
"We've really been concentrating on that and working on our two-strike hitting, so it was nice to see our guys make good contact when they had two strikes on them," Blomberg said.
Edwardsville began to chip away at the Lancers' lead in the bottom of the fourth, which started with a single to left field by Todd Baumgartner. Ted Messer drew a walk off East pitcher Mike Mueller and a ground out by Andrew Sertich put runners at second and third.
Baum scored on a wild pitch and pinch runner Zach Frey scored on a sacrifice fly by Patterozzi.
"They're going to do the things they need to do to win," Blomberg said of the Tigers. "That's how Tim (Funkhouser) works and he does a great job. They don't get the No. 2 seed (in the sectional) and they don't lead the conference for bad reasons. They do a lot of things well and they did everything they had to do to win the game today."
EHS took the lead in the bottom of the fifth, which started with a double to center field by Dane Opel. Andy Burns drew a walk and Elliot Frey slapped a two-run triple to right center field. Frey came around to score when East made an overthrow on the relay to third base.
The Tigers' rally eventually made a winner out of Patterozzi, who allowed four runs and eight hits over five innings while striking out seven and walking two. For the sixth inning, Funkhouser elected to use one of his best pitchers, Gregg Culp, instead of saving him for the Belleville West game on Wednesday.
The move paid off, as Culp earned the save with two scoreless innings. He allowed two hits while striking out three and walking one.
"We needed to win today to have a chance and with the weather the way it is, you never know what's going to happen the next day," Funkhouser said. "That's the bottom line and I thought (Culp) threw really well."
The Tigers added one more run in the sixth inning. Culp got a leadoff walk and moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Jimmy Smith. Opel singled to left field, putting runners at first and third.
The next batter, Burns, hit a grounder to third base and Powell's low throw to the plate allowed pinch runner Zach Maggio to score. Edwardsville nearly added another run, but Opel was thrown out trying to score on a wild pitch.
In the top of the seventh inning, Belleville East had runners at first and second with one out. But Culp struck out DJ Hendricks and Phillips to end the game.
Mueller took the loss for East, allowing six runs (three earned) and eight hits over six innings. He struck out nine and walked three.
"I'm not sure if he ran out of gas," Blomberg said. "Maybe we left him in a little too long, but he's our guy and he's going to take us as far as he can take us. We're going to rely on him quite a bit, but I thought except for the one inning, I thought he played really well. I knew when we were winning 4-0, it definitely wasn't over. The one inning got us and they got the win."
"We knew he was good," Funkhouser said of Mueller. "We saw him last year a time or two and he had a good fastball that runs a little bit. His slider is though and he threw some really good change-ups to get our guys out.
"You don't like to see that out of a team that's in your regional, but we know they've been playing some really good baseball, especially of late. This was a big win for us."
Baumgartner had three hits for Edwardsville while Opel and Elliot Frey had two hits apiece. For East, Snyder had three hits while Matt Weiler added two.
The Tigers are the No. 2 seed in the Class AA Edwardsville Sectional and will play East St. Louis or Waterloo at 4:15 p.m. Wednesday in the semifinals of the Belleville East Regional. East, the No. 7 seed, faces No. 10 Freeburg at 4:15 p.m. Thursday in the other semifinal.
The regional championship game is slated for 11 a.m. Saturday.
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