Stars Hand Stallions First SLABA League Loss

CHESTERFIELD – Even though his club had just pounded its way to a 15-2 win over rival American National on Wednesday, Stallions Baseball Club varsity head coach Scott Seddon didn’t spend one moment celebrating the victory with his team.

Instead, the coach talked immediately with his group about the game they had the following day against the South-West Stars at Missouri Baptist University.

Seddon knew his Stallions had just beaten South-West 11-1 on Tuesday, and he worried that such a quick rematch with the Stars could be a trap game for his club, had been perfect in seven previous SLABA League games.

Turned out Seddon was right, as the Stars, in their most impressive performance of the summer, outplayed the Stallions in every way, and earned themselves a 6-3 win on Thursday night.

“We beat these guys on Tuesday, and then we won what we thought was a big game on Wednesday, and the first thing we said was this could be a letdown game,” Seddon said, after his Stallions fell to 7-1 in SLABA League play this summer. “We told the guys, you gotta come ready to play. So we knew this was a trap, and they got us.”

South-West had been having a difficult summer.

In 15 games, the Stars had only posted four wins prior to Thursday’s matchup.

But Stars head coach Grayling Tobias felt his team might be ready to make a big splash.

“That was then, this is now,” Tobias said. “Our guys have been improving and getting better every game. We’ve had a bunch of one-run losses. But tonight, the pitching, the defense, and the clutch-hitting were what we need them to be.”

Indeed it was.

Especially the pitching, where righthander Cameron Tober overcame a shaky first inning, where he gave up two runs and three hits, and held the Stallions to just five hits and one more run the rest of the way, to pick up his second win of the summer.

At one point in the middle innings, Tober retired 11 of 12 batters, and didn’t allow any baserunners to reach scoring position, until a leadoff single and stolen base put a Stallions runner on second in the sixth.

“Cameron pitched a great game,” Tobias said. “A lot of credit goes to Patrick Reda, our catcher. He called a great game.”

Leftfielder Jake Beckwith deserves a bunch of the credit as well.

The senior-to-be at Parkway West High was just fantastic. He played a hand in every run the Stars scored.

In the first inning, he managed to get on base by beating the throw at first, after a strikeout-wild pitch by Stallions starter Alex Parker.

Beckwith then stole second and third, then scored on an RBI double by teammate Andrew Pitts.

Then in the third, Beckwith tied the game for the Stars with a hard-hit groundball that scored teammate Pat Moritz, who’d singled, stole second, and took third on a Parker balk.

But the big blow of the game came in the fifth inning, when Beckwith laced a triple into the right-centerfield gap that scored two runs, and gave the Stars a 4-2 lead.

Pitts followed with a single that drove in Beckwith to make it 5-2.

Then in the sixth, Beckwith drove in Moritz again, with a line-drive double into the left-centerfield gap.

“Jake has been one of our most consistent hitters all season,” Tobias said. “We’re trying to get him to be more aggressive and utilize his speed. When he gets it going, there isn’t a better hitter out there.”

The most disappointing aspect of Thursday’s loss for the Stallions was that they started out strong.

Leadoff hitter Wade Rothermich, who had four hits in Wednesday’s Stallions win, led off the game with a triple, and scored on a smash basehit by teammate Daniel Seddon.

Seddon then stole second, and moments later scored on a hit by Branden Sugar.

After the first, the Stallions looked primed for another stellar performance.

But it just didn’t work out that way, and the Stallions, who remain in first place in the SLABA League, will look to regroup before returning to SLABA play next week.

“There’s still a lot of games left,” Seddon said. “And we still have faith in our players. This one stings, but we can’t let it hurt.”

The Stallions will be back in action Friday night, when they’ll travel to Longacre Park in Fairview Heights, IL, to play a 6 p.m. doubleheader against the Fairview Heights American Legion team.

Next week, the Stallions will host home games on Tuesday and Wednesday, against the St. Louis Tigers (Tuesday) at T.R. Hughes Ballpark in O’Fallon, and against the American National Eagles (Wednesday) at Founder’s Park in Lake St. Louis.

The Tuesday night contest is slated for a 5:30 p.m. start, while the Wednesday night matchup will begin at 8 p.m.

The Stars will play two doubleheaders this weekend.

On Saturday, South-West will travel to Principia High to play a 9:30 a.m. twinbill against the Meramec Valley Travelers.

Then on Sunday, South-West will do a noon double-dip against American National at the Hazelwood Sports Complex on Aubuchon Road.