Notebook: Affton Boys Volleyball, Bayless Baseball Heating Up

It’s been another big week in high school sports in South County.

We’d like to give fans and supporters of the Affton, Bayless, and Lutheran South High programs a quick recap of what went down this week, while also taking a brief look at what is in store next week.

AFFTON

The Affton boys volleyball team continued its hot play with a perfect 3-0 record last week. The Cougars boast a 21-5 record this season, and have won six consecutive matches.

Last week was particularly exciting for Affton, which managed to pull out three-set wins over Westminster Christian Academy on Monday, and Bishop DuBourg High on Wednesday, before securing a straight-set victory over Rockwood Summit High last Thursday.

The standout players, like they’ve been all season, were junior outside hitter Josh Comer and junior setter Andrew Douglas.

Comer had 17 kills in the win over Westminster, 14 kills in victory over DuBourg, and five more kills in limited duty against Summit.

Douglas did the setting up for the majority of those kills, with 25 assists against Westminster, 26 assists against DuBourg, and 12 total assists against Summit.

The Cougars will play two more regular-season games next week before the state playoffs begin in two weeks.

Affton’s final home game of the season will be on Monday when the Cougars will host a rematch against DuBourg. The regular-season finale will be Wednesday at Oakville. Both those contests are scheduled for 5 p.m. starts.

The Affton baseball team hasn’t had a particularly good season. The Cougars are 3-14 this year.

But they did pick up two of those wins in the last week of games. On Friday, April 29, the Cougars ended a three-game losing streak with an 11-7 home win over DuBourg. Junior Kevin Cody had three hits, including his second home run of the season, and two runs batted in during the win.

Affton lost its next time out, at Mehlville on Tuesday. But the Cougars came back with their biggest win of the season, a 14-2 pounding of McCluer South-Berkeley, last Wednesday.

Senior Ryan Smith was the star at the plate for the Cougars that day. He had three hits, his second homer of the season, and six RBIs against the Bulldogs.

And despite Affton’s rough season, Smith has been fantastic. Going into the final week of the regular season, he leads the Suburban East Conference in batting average (.558), on-base average (.620), and slugging percentage (.953).

The Affton girls soccer team continued their slide this week, as the Cougars lost two games and have now lost five of their past seven contests.

This is a surprising turn considering how well the Cougars were playing two weeks ago. In that time though, Affton has won just twice (on April 26 at Lutheran South and on April 30 against St. Elizabeth Academy).

Junior forward Haley Stewart has continued her magnificent play for the Cougars. She leads the Suburban East Conference in goals (28), assists (17), and total points (73). Her goal and assist numbers rank sixth in the area among all players.

Affton will close out the regular season with two road games this week, traveling to Bayless on Monday, and Festus on Tuesday.   

BAYLESS

Bayless baseball has won three of its past four games, including two mercy-rule wins.

The Bronchos got the winning started last Saturday afternoon with a 13-3 win over Westminster Christian, and continued their hot hitting in a 14-4 victory over Crossroads on Tuesday.

Hancock handed Bayless a 5-1 loss on Thursday at Heine Meine Field. But Bayless got itself back on the winning track on Friday, with a 3-0 win at Valley Park.

And there was a different hero in each victory. Against Westminster, junior catcher Ryan Wagner had two hits and four RBIs to lead the way. Ironically, teammate Elliott Sterett had two hits and four RBI against Crossroads.

But against Valley Park, it was brilliant pitching by Alfred Parisi that was the difference. The junior fireballer tossed a complete-game shutout against the Hawks, while allowing just two hits and no walks, while striking out nine.

Bayless has two games this week, before opening district play next week. On Monday, the Bronchos will take on DuBourg at 7 p.m. at Heine Meine. Bayless will travel to Herculaneum on Wednesday to battle the Bearcats in a 4 p.m. contest.

Bayless also found out this week that it will play Carnahan in its district playoff opener on Saturday, May 14, at Lutheran South High at noon. The winner advances to play the winner of Saturday’s Hancock-Imagine Prep game in the district semifinals on Monday, May 16.

That game will be have a 4:15 p.m. start, and will also be played at Lutheran South.

The Bayless boys volleyball team completed its regular season by winning two of the five games it played this week.

The Bronchos began the week with a three-set loss at Fort Zumwalt West, but were able to redeem themselves with a straight-set win over North County Tech on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Bayless took a straight-set loss against DuBourg, before splitting two games on Friday (a straight-set loss against Belleville West and a straight-set win over a team from Chicago).

Senior hitter Emrah Mehmedovic continues his brilliant season for the Bronchos. Not only does the 6-foot-3, 215-pounder lead Bayless in nearly every volleyball category, he ranks among the area’s best in several of them.

Mehmedovic ranks seventh in the area in kills average (4.5 a game), sixth in total kills (211), second in blocks (77), and 20th in total digs (206).

Mehmedovic and his Bayless mates will find out this week when and where they will play in the first round of the state volleyball playoffs.

The Bayless girls soccer team turned in the most satisfying win of the week, defeating Hancock, 4-3, on Thursday to end a nine-game losing streak.

The Bronchos were 2-1 before the streak began, and are now hoping to carry the momentum of finally ending that rough patch into their postseason. Before the playoffs begin, Bayless will play two more regular season games this week.

On Monday, Bayless will host Affton at 4 p.m. Then on Wednesday, the Bronchos will travel to Maplewood Richmond Heights for the regular-season finale at 4 p.m.

LUTHERAN SOUTH

Lutheran South boys tennis received a nice honor when the district tennis playoff seedings were announced. The Lancers were named the No. 1 seed in Class 1 District 2, and were granted a first-round bye in the playoffs.

That means Lutheran South won’t have to play an extra match to advance in the district. The Lancers can simply sit and wait for the winner of the Crystal City/Windsor first-round match in the district semifinals.

Lutheran South golf received some difficult news over the weekend.

The Lancers thought they had earned a trip to the state championship tournament at Silo Ridge Golf Club in Bolivar on Monday and Tuesday. But MSHSAA officials informed the team that there had been a scoring error following the Class 3 sectionals at Aberdeen Golf Club in Eureka, and that Priory had earned the state tournament berth and not the Lancers.

Westminster Christian won the sectional, and the automatic berth into the state tournament. And Lutheran South had been told that it finished second and would receive the at-large bid.

But upon checking the scoring, MSHSAA officials realized that an error had been made and that Priory’s four players at the sectional had shot a 332, while Lutheran South’s team shot a 347. That means Priory is headed to state, while the Lancers will be home for the state tournament.

Lutheran South baseball, on a brighter note, is one of the hottest teams in the area in any sport.

The Lancers have won six of their past seven games, and 11 of their past 15. The most thrilling of those wins was last Thursday’s 8-5 victory over rival Lutheran North at Busch Stadium.

Senior Jordan Stoulp was once again a key figure for the Lancers. He had three hits, including a double and a triple, scored two runs, and drove in two runs in what proved to be a raucous Lutheran South victory.

For the season, Lutheran South’s leading hitter ranks fifth in the ABC League with a .457 batting average, is second in the conference with three home runs, and leads the entire league with 27 RBIs.

The Lancers will play three games this week before beginning district play next week.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Lutheran South will host Principia and Orchard Farm, respectively. And on Thursday, the Lancers will travel to Ladue to play MICDS. Each contest is scheduled for 4:15 p.m. first pitches.