Seckman, Fox Players Competing in SLU Summer Baseball Classic

SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY—After enduring a rainy Thursday that led to several games being postponed and then a mad scramble on Friday, the Saturday pool play action at the Pastime Inc. SLU Summer Baseball Classic proved to be some of the best in-town baseball of the summer.

On Friday teams were unsure who where they were supposed to play, but everything was in full motion for Saturday with more than 30 games being played at multiple locations. This included both fields at Edwardsville (IL) High, and the varsity field at Granite City (IL) High, SIU-Edwardsville and Meramec Community College.

In the afternoon session at Saint Louis University's Billiken Sports Complexon on Saturday, two South County-based teams each took one on the chin against a pair of the area’s best club baseball programs.

The Rawlings Tigers, a first-year program still looking to find its footing, suffered a 13-3 loss to the Tigers Baseball Club of Edwardsville.

Then in the final game of the night, the Jefferson County Blazers couldn’t muster much offense in a 2-0 loss to the St. Louis Pirates 18U team.

In the Rawlings game, Josh Conley, a senior-to-be at Pacific High, and Austin Avalos, another-senior-to-be at Parkway South, each had two hits for the Tigers.

But that wasn’t nearly enough to overcome the two long home runs (a three-run shot and a grand slam) that the Tigers Baseball Club drilled in the third and fifth innings.

The Blazers were held to just one hit for most of their matchup with the Pirates 18s and starter Steven Diel of the 2011 Missouri Class 4 state baseball champion Francis Howell Vikings.

Jake Rethmeyer, a Fox High grad, had one of those hits and also made a sparkling running catch against the right-field wall in the bottom of the second that saved at least one run, and kept the Blazers in it despite their trouble mounting any offense.

In the seventh, Alek Ferbet and Mark Rodgers, both of Seckman High, each reached base with one out against Diel, giving the Blazers their best scoring chance of the night.

But the fire-balling lefthander struck out the final two batters to close out a brilliant win that earned the Pirates 18s one of the tournament’s top eight seeds and a berth in the championship round at SLU on Sunday.

There were other marquee games played at SLU, including a thrilling 11-2 win by the Kirkwood-area based St. Louis Browns over the Missouri Outlaws.  

The Browns, whose roster is made up of many of the stars from the 2011 Vianney playoff team, feature one of the area’s best starting lineups. This proved to be true again on Saturday as they were bashing the ball against the Outlaws.

“It’s kind of been feast or famine with us this summer,” Browns head coach Clay Keeney said. “Like earlier this week, we had 19 hits and scored 16 runs against American National of the SLABA League, then (Thursday) against the Bandits we had like three hits. It’s totally all or nothing with us for some reason.”

And it was even that way during Saturday’s game against the Outlaws.

In the first inning, the Browns had five hard-hit balls in a row, and scored four runs on several extra-base hits, including catcher Ryan Barnes’ third homer of the summer, to take an early lead.

Besides Barnes, the Browns also feature Vianney players Ryan Snyder, pitcher Jake Rule and Brandon Schlicting.

But after that first inning, the Browns went five straight innings without getting more than one hit in an inning before breaking loose again in the seventh for five runs on four hits, two walks, a hit batter, and a sacrifice fly.

The one thing that stayed constant for the Browns on Saturday was pitcher Drew Moran (Trinity Catholic), who bounced back from some recent shoulder soreness to toss six stellar innings on Saturday. He allowed just two runs on four hits with eight strikeouts and two walks.

“Drew looked real good today,” Keeney said. “We got him out a little early, so we could save him for Sunday if we need him. But he was real strong today.”

The top eight teams after pool play advanced to Sunday’s championship round of the tournament, which will begin with quarterfinal round games at SLU and Edwardsville High.

The Browns will be one of the teams that begin their day at Edwardsville. They’ll play in the second semifinal at that site at 11:15 a.m. against the Northshore Yankees, a team of all-stars from the Chicago area.

Should the Browns win, they would then advance to the tournament semifinals, which will be played at SLU at 1:30 p.m. and 3:45 p.m.

Like the Browns, the Kirkwood Tigers, also known as the Easton Tigers 17 and-under Black team, also went 3-1 in pool play and earned themselves a berth in the final eight.

They’ll play in the first quarterfinal at Edwardsville High against the St. Louis Pirates 17U team at 9 a.m. on Sunday.

The championship game of the SLU Summer Baseball Classic is slated for a Sunday night first pitch at 6 p.m.

The final day schedule for the 2011 SLU Summer Baseball Classic:

At Edwardsville HS

9 a.m. – St. Louis Pirates 17 vs. Kirkwood Tigers (y)

11:15 a.m. – Northshore Yankees vs. St. Louis Browns (z)

At SLU

9 a.m. – St. Louis Grizzlies vs. St. Louis Pirates 18 (x)

11:15 a.m. – Illinois Sparks vs. Midwest Outlaws (w)

1:30 p.m. – (x) vs. (y)

3:45 p.m. – (w) vs. (z)

6 p.m. – Championship game