Francis Howell Central Sets School Wins Record By Beating Fort Zumwalt East

After his team clinched itself a share of the GAC South championship and gained its 17th victory of the season on Tuesday, which tied the school’s all-time record for most wins in a season, Francis Howell Central High head baseball coach Ray Howard was a concerned that his Spartans might suffer a letdown against High on Wednesday.

After Wednesday’s performance though, the coach can probably let those concerns lie.

His Spartans showed no signs of an emotional letdown, wasting little time before jumping on the visiting Lions. Howell Central plated runs in each of the first four innings  in an 8-7 Central victory that set a new school record for wins in a year.

“We’ve been playing pretty good ball this year,” Howard said. “We’re getting all facets. Sometimes we hit. Sometimes we field. Sometimes we do both, and get good pitching. We’re just trying to ride it out and keep the kids hot going into districts.”

The MSHSAA district playoffs will begin in about 10 days, and Central certainly looked ready for the playoffs on Wednesday, pounding out 12 hits against East, and scoring all eight of its runs in the first four innings of the game.

Zumwalt East starting pitcher Clayton Meyer (2-2) wasn’t exactly pitching badly. But the red-hot Howell Central lineup was still able to get one run off him in the first, two more tallies in the second, another four runs in the third, and yet another run in the fourth.

And unfortunately for Zumwalt East, it found itself behind 8-2, before it had even really settled into the game.

“I couldn’t put my finger on thing,” Howard said, about why his team is so hot at the plate, and in the field, right now. “We just try to work on things after each game and practice, and try to get better at those.”

And just as they had the day before against rival Francis Howell North, it was the bottom of the lineup guys, leftfielder Zach Isham, shortstop Ryan Howard, third baseman Joe Gardner, and centerfielder Josh Wade, who provided the spark for the Spartans.

The hot-hitting foursome combined to go 7-for-10 at the plate, with two walks, four runs scored, and five RBIs. Isham, Howard, and Gardner each had two hits apiece.

“The bottom of the order’s been big,” Howard said. “We always knew that we’re capable one-through-nine. And a couple guys on the bench can hit, so we don’t really feel like we have a weak spot in our lineup.”

The Zumwalt East Lions managed to make a game of it in the sixth, when it got three runs off Spartan starter Bryan Webb (4-0).

The Lions got the first three runners on in the inning, before a strikeout brought rightfielder Marvin Byrd to the plate. He delivered an RBI sacrifice fly, which began a succession of plays that led to East scoring runs.

Meyer reached on an error, which allowed teammate Ryan March to score. Then junior Justin Pham added a run-scoring hit that suddenly made the score 8-5.

Once East loaded the bases again, Howard went to Henson, a hard-throwing righty, to try to get out of the jam. Which he did by getting East’s Branden Sugar to fly out to end the inning.

“I wanted to bring in a guy that had a little more velocity,” Howard said. “Jake’s got a good arm, and he hasn’t thrown all that much this season. So he was a little inconsistent. But he got the job done.”

The game wasn’t without some drama in the seventh though, as Zumwalt East scored two runs in the seventh, and managed to get the tying and potential winning runs on base.

Ryan March and Tanner Trokey got East’s final rally started with a single and a double that produced a run for the Lions.

Then after a walk and a strikeout, Meyer delivered an RBI hit that drove in Trokey, and with two outs in the inning, East found itself only down by one run.

But that’s as close as the Lions would get, as Henson got East’s Justin Pham to groundout to first to end the game.

“Our experience in the past has been that it helps to stay hot going into districts,” Howard said. “So we’re just trying to keep playing well and get ready for that.”

Central will play one more game this week, before closing the regular season with two games next week.

On Friday, the Spartans will host Ladue High, and next week they’ll play at Pattonville on Monday, and at home against Hazelwood West on Wednesday. All of those games are scheduled for 4:15 first pitches.

East also has one more ballgame this week, but will play three times next week before the playoffs begin the week after that.

The Lions will take on St. Charles High, today at Blanchette Park.

Next week, they’ll play home games on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, against Francis Howell North, Winfield, and O’Fallon Christian. Those games are also all scheduled to start at 4:15 p.m.