Lutheran South Battles Rival at Busch Stadium

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DOWNTOWN — Just before the original date of this year’s Lutheran High Busch Stadium baseball showdown between archrivals and Lutheran North, South High baseball coach Steve Pfund announced to his team that he planned to start a senior at every position for the game.

That really wasn’t unusual news for Ethan Krenning and Sam Gieg, two seniors, who are used to starting in the Lancers regular everyday lineup.

But that plan did come as a surprise to senior Ryan Strohm, who also found out that day that he would be South’s starting pitcher for the game.

“I’ve been thinking about it for two weeks,” Strohm said. “Practically every moment since then, at practice, even at other games, I was thinking about starting on the mound at Busch Stadium.”

And no matter how many times Strohm daydreamed about how his big day might go, he couldn’t have possibly imagined a better performance than the one he gave, which proved to be a dominant, complete-game shutout that led the Lancers to a 9-0 win over Lutheran North.

“It was just surreal,” Strohm said. “I’ve been waiting for this game all year. To be able to throw well against our rival at Busch Stadium is a great feeling.”

The victory was also an important one for South, which is now 15-4 on the season, and 6-1 in Metro League play, which is just one game behind defending state champ Westminster for the conference lead.

South’s only league loss came against Westminster back on April 16, but the Lancers will get their chance to move into a tie for first, when the teams meet again on Monday, at 4:30 p.m., at Westminster.

“You know it’s great being here, and we all had a lot of fun, but this was a league game,” Pfund said. “This game counts in the league standings, and I’m really glad to see us play well.”

Krenning and Gieg played a big role in that as well, as they both had three hits and two RBIs in the game, with all six combined hits going for extra bases, to lead the Lancer offense.

“It’s great hitting here,” Gieg said. “The power alleys are deep. So if you get the ball out there, it’s going to roll to the wall. It’s always nice to come out and play on this field, even if it’s not as many people here. It’s a great atmosphere.”

Krenning almost had a truly remarkable day, when a line-shot he hit into the rightfield corner rolled around so long that he was easily able to cruise into third for a triple.

What he didn’t realize was that Lutheran North had fumbled the relay throw, so if Krenning had kept running, he probably would’ve crossed the plate easily for a very rare Busch Stadium high school home run.

“Oh don’t tell me that,” Krenning said, with a laugh. “I wasn’t even thinking about trying to score. I just picked up Coach, and he was saying stop at third.

“If I had known they dropped the ball, I probably would’ve run through the stop sign and tried to score. Man, that would’ve been awesome.”

As it turned out, the Lancers still had a pretty awesome day at the home of the World Series champions.

“The kids just love it when we come down here,” Pfund said. “It never gets old. It’s still a big deal being down here.”

South will be back in action Saturday morning, with a 10 a.m. game at South High against Bishop DuBourg High.

Then next week, the Lancers will play that rematch game against Westminster on Monday, before hosting a pair of other rematch games against John Burroughs on Thursday, May 3, and Lutheran North next Saturday, May 5.

REMAINING LUTHERAN SOUTH BASEBALL SCHEDULE

April 28   vs. Bishop DuBourg                           10 am

April 30   at Westminster                                 4:30 pm

May 3     vs. John Burroughs                            4:15 pm

May 5     vs. Lutheran North                             Noon

May 8     at Principia                                       4:30 pm

May 10   vs. MICDS                                        4:15 pm