St. Charles Post 312 Pitcher Leads Team in Win over Central Spartans

The St. Charles Post 312 American Legion baseball team earned a victory over the Central Spartans last night at Clarence and Huster Field in St. Peters behind a strong outing from pitcher Brett Conner.

Conner worked all nine innings and struck out five batters, walked none, and gave up just three hits in the 2-0 shutout.

“He had one of the best games I’ve ever seen him have,” St. Charles Manager Kurt Denningmann said. “And their pitcher (Zack Carter) pitched the second best game I’ve ever seen him have.”

Denningmann gave Conner credit for quality ball movement.

“He moved the ball around and he had great control of his curveball,” he said. “Believe it or not, he threw 106 pitches.”   

St. Charles’ defense took advantage of golden opportunities, as Post 312 turned double plays in the third and fifth innings.

Post 312 wasted little time in scoring. Adam Ricks’ one-run double in the first inning gave St. Charles a 1-0 lead. Mike Pundmann’s one-run single made the score 2-0.

St. Charles banged out 10 hits against the Central Spartans’ Zach Carter. Carter walked one and struck out two. Post 312’s offense stalled after the runs in the first two innings. St. Charles stranded eight runners in the contest, six of the eight in the third through ninth innings.

Post 312 had the bases loaded with no outs in the seventh but a triple play ended what might have been an offensive explosion. Mike Eimer smacked a fly ball into deep right field with the bases loaded. Central Spartan right fielder Jonny Langford caught the ball and threw it home to catcher Erik Hodge who tagged out Sam Chambers at home. Hodge threw the ball back to Carter. Pundmann then tried to take home plate. Carter threw the ball back to Hodge who tagged out Pundmann.

“We didn’t get the timely hitting,” Denningmann said. “That triple play killed us. I didn’t know the right fielder had a bazooka and then the third out at home was a hustle play. I have no regrets on that one either. We didn’t get the timely hitting and if we’re struggling on anything right now it’s that."

The Central Spartans stranded three runners in the contest.

“We just didn’t hit, bottom line,” Central Spartans Manager Brian Vaught said. “We had a great pitching performance, played solid defense, but we just didn’t hit.”

St. Charles improves to 7-4 with the win. The Central Spartans drop to 2-3.