Wentzville Capitalizes on St. Charles Mistakes in 12-4 Rout

ST. CHARLES – One manager called it a bad night; the other called it an off night.

Whatever you call it, things did not go well for the St. Charles American Legion Post 312 baseball team Tuesday night.

Wentzville Post 323 benefited from seven walks, three hit batters and four errors to beat St. Charles 12-4 at Blanchette Park.

“We did a lot better than I expected,” said Post 323 manager Bob Sellers, who told his team following the game that they “caught a good team on a bad day.”

“We jumped on them quick and I thought for sure they were going to come back,” Sellers added. “I kept waiting for them to jump back on top of us, but we really kept them off-balance.”

Deserving much of that credit was Wentzville starting pitcher Conner Hales, who did not allow a ball to leave the infield until the Connor Brett hit an RBI single to center field in the bottom of the fifth inning.

“I knew I’d have to use my off-speed stuff to keep them off-balance and just use my fastball whenever they think the off-speed is coming,” said Hales, who allowed five hits and three runs over six innings. “I got a pretty good defense behind me, so I just try to keep the ball low because if anything gets up, that’s where the hits come from.”

Despite six walks to only three strikeouts, Sellers said Hales pitched “an outstanding game,” and St. Charles manager Kurt Denningmann agreed.

“His ball just flat moved, it was moving all over the place,” Denningmann said.

Conversely St. Charles starter Austin Olendorff struggled mightily, especially during an eight-run third inning. Olendorff was chased with two outs in the third after giving up eight runs on only two hits. He walked six and hit a batter before being relieved by Travis Weidenbenner, who promptly hit the first batter he faced.

Five Post 323 batters were walked during the third inning and two more were hit by pitches as Wentzville (4-3) led 9-0 after three innings.

“Austin just didn’t have it,” Denningmann said. “He was missing everything low and away. I didn’t want him thinking about his mechanics. I gave him a couple of pointers, but it just didn’t help and I had to get him out.”

Hales helped his own cause at the plate. The Wentzville leadoff hitter reached base in each of his first four plate appearances with three singles and a hit-by-pitch. He reached twice in the third and drove in a run.

“That’s why he’s my leadoff guy,” Sellers said before pointing out that the heart of the lineup “did their job.”

Hales finished 3-for-4; Dylan Sellers went 2-for-5 but reached base all five times and drove in three runs; Cody Bishop was 0-for-3 but walked twice; Paul Semore had three RBIs as part of a 1-for-4 night; Tony Patchin had two hits with an RBI in five at-bats; and the No. 6 batter Chris Trower had an RBI single in the third for his only hit in five at-bats. He also reached on an error to lead off the ninth.

Denningmann said his players hadn’t faced such a deficit all season and will learn from it. St. Charles (16-5) did show some resiliency by scoring three times in the fifth, cutting the deficit to 11-3.

Brett’s RBI single followed two walks and a hit-by-pitch and was the first of three straight hits. The fourth Post 312 run came in the ninth when Alexander Rael was plunked by a pitch with the bases loaded. That scored Sam Chambers, who walked three times and led off the ninth inning by reaching on an error.

“It was just one of those nights,” said Denningmann, who joked that after hearing thunder in the third inning he was praying for lightning to call off the game. “I don’t think we had a bad night, just an off night. There’s a little bit of a difference.

“But (Wentzville) is a good team. I had no idea. In the years past, they haven’t been strong, but you can’t overlook Wentzville this year. They’re a good team.”

WENTZVILLE 12, ST. CHARLES 4

Wentzville       108 020 010 – 12 9 3

St. Charles      000 030 001 – 4 5 4

Wentzville (4-3) – Hales 3-4, RBI, SB; Sellers 2-5, 2B, 3RBI; Semore 1-4, 3RBI; Patching 2-5, RBI; Trower 1-5, RBI. WP – Hales IP-6 H-5 R-3 ER-3 BB-6 K-3 HBP-1.

St. Charles (16-5) – Brett 1-5, RBI; Ricks 1-2, RBI; Jones 1-3, RBI; Pundmann 1-4; Bothe 1-3. LP – Olendorff IP-2.2 H-2 R-8 ER-7 BB-6 K-2 HBP-1.