April 21, 2008                        Check Out previous Blogs

After many wet, cold days of cancelled games and practices, most teams found a window of good weather to resume action. Other than the thousands of calls to cancel and reschedule games, what impact did the weather have on teams?

Well there are several factors. If a team is youthful, sometimes the cancellations wear down their eager optimism.  Some senior laden teams may begin to turn their attention to graduation activities if this abbreviated season hasn't been stellar to this point, either on a personal or team level.  Red-hot teams were the most attentive, most engaged at these "rain day" practices. The gap may widen between these teams and "good" teams.  When games do resume at a rate of 4-5 per week, some scores will be very close and others will be big blow-outs.  This will be due to the strain on pitching staffs. If a team has to start their #4 starting pitcher (who probably gets 2-3 starts a year) against a quality opponent, a slugfest is on the menu. Many pitchers will be "making" or "breaking" their opportunities for late season action with their work during this heavy part of the schedule. Another factor that evolves, maybe not so clearly, is that coaches have time over the rain break to evaluate the performance of their players to this point. Some will decide, as tough as it may be, to turn away from an upperclassman who has been on the team in prior years and provide more playing time for younger, better performing, players.

Great Games this week around the STATE this week...

Ft Zumwalt West Jaguars (12-1) jumped on the Hickman Kewpies (9-4) for 5 quick runs in the top of the 1st. Both teams were banging the ball all around the park in the first 3 innings as each team scored every at-bat. The score after 3 innings was 10-6 Jaguars. The Jaguars used the LONG ball as they went "park" three times (Danny Frohock, Taylor Holman, Zach Miller). The home-standing Kewpies kept fighting back primary on the strength of AJ Grathwohl, who had a career game. AJ had 4 hits, 2 doubles, a triple and 3 RBI's but was stranded on 2nd in the final inning as the game ended with FZW on top 11-9.

In Washington MO, the two town teams played a classic this week. As one might expect, there was a huge crowd (clearly the largest of the season for either team) on hand to enjoy this terrific game. St Francis Borgia Knights(6-3) shutout a determined Washington Bluejay (2-8)team 2-0. The Knights Spiker Helms, who spun a 3 hitter with 11 strikeouts, out dueled Bluejay Joe Liesmann for the win. The Knights scored both their runs in the 3rd inning  as they used a sac bunt and a sac fly to push across the first (and winning) run of the game. The 2nd run scored on an error.

The McDonald County Mustangs had a real tough week. It sometimes seems that for some reason, teams just fall a bit short. The Mustangs tasted defeat despite great efforts.  Early in the week, the Carthage Tigers used the 2 of 2 at the plate, 2 doubles and 3 RBI efforts of Caleb Fierro to edge the Mustangs 6-5. The Tigers had to fight off a 7th inning 3 run rally by the Mustangs that actually saw the tying run in scoring position when the final out occured. Later in the week, #8 Webb City Cardinals capitalized on 'Stangs defensive miscues and scored two unearned runs to notch a 3-1 victory.  Ugh... some weeks, just kill ya when your kids are playing hard.

THE TEAM THAT SCORES FIRST USUALLY...

The Hancock Tigers grabbed a quick 4-0 lead after 2 innings and made it stand up as they toppled the JF Kennedy Celtics 5-4. Nate Mize and Nick Drake each had two hits and 2 ribbies to lead the Tigers to this exciting non-conference win.

EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT...

St Dominic Crusadors had to go extra (8) innings in the wildest game of the week. St. Francis Borgia scored 4 runs in the bottom of the 7th to tie the game at 14-14 (no...not 2 touchdowns a piece !). St Dom pushed across the winner in the 8th. Teddy Watkins (Borgia) had 5 hits, drove home 5 runs, scored 3 runs and had a double and HR in the losing cause !

The Affton Cougars spotted the Windsor Owls a 4 run lead through 5 innings. The Cougars crossed the plate 3 times in the 6th and scored the tying run in the 7th. Windsor, answered the challenge in the 8th with a winning run. Ethan Schlechte and Jeremy Bradley each had 3 hits for the Owls.

ONE BIG SMACK...

DeSoto Dragons plated 4 runs in the bottom of 6th to snatch a 6-4 win from the McCluer North Stars. Brandon Osia was 3 for 3 in this exciting come-from-behind win over a Suburban North foe.

IT AIN'T OVER, TIL...

Seemingly coasting to victory as they held a 8-2 lead after 4, the Lafayette Lancers saw things tighten up. The Northwest Lions scored 4 runs in the last 3 innings and made the Lancers go to the pen and hang on for a 9-6 victory. Tyler Boraz had 3 hits and knocked home 2 runs for the winners.

BIGGEST INNING OF THE WEEK (in a competitive game)...

The Summit Falcons were leading 6-4 after 5 innings over the Lindbergh Flyers. Lindbergh erupted for 9 runs in the 6th !!  The Flyers went on to post a 13-9 win over the Falcons.  The 4 hits game of Devon Myers (Summit) gets somewhat lost in this shuffle. There were several other HUGE innings in one-sided games this week but are nearly as impressive to me as an inning like this when your team trails after 5 innings.

This week, Prepcasts hits the baseball trail solidly! WE have 6 possible games (possible because of Mother Nature's tears). In addition, Prepcasts will feature a boys and a girls lacrosse game and a water polo match. For ALL SPORTS, ALL THE TIME, ALL YEAR LONG.. go to www.prepcasts.com

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