Super Summer Ends with Heartbreak for Wentzville Post 323

After one of their best summers to date, wasn’t exactly disappointed after falling short in the District 9 tournament last weekend.

“I don’t know if ‘disappointed’ is a strong enough word – it was crushing,” said Wentzville manager Bob Sellers. “It was just absolutely crushing to every guy on that team. They worked so hard and they deserved more. It would have been easier to take if we had just lost from a walk-off homerun.”

Post 323’s season finished with a 7-6 loss to the West Jaguars on Saturday, shortly after the squad had erased a five-run deficit to tie the game in the top of the ninth inning. But there was no walk-off homerun to end the summer; instead, a series of miscues led to the winning run being plated.

“At that point, being manager, there really wasn’t anything I could do to help them,” Sellers said. “There was nothing more I could do but stand and watch. It was a pretty rough loss to take. I think if we hadn’t had done so well (during the season), it wouldn’t have felt so bad. We were happy to get that far, but we actually came to believe that we could do better.”

It’s an encouraging sentiment about a team that historically found itself at the bottom of the District 9 standings. But in 2011, Post 323 literally came together, attracting a handful of impact players that meshed easily into the squad’s previous holes. Wentzville finished its season 10-2, earning a second-place seeding in the district tournament.

“Some of my returning players had talked a few of their high school teammates into coming out, ones they thought would fit in real well,” Sellers said. “They came on and it paid off quite a bit. It seemed like those boys fit right in with the team already in place, those small little gaps we needed filled.”

’s Conner Hales, who led St. Louis in average (.529) and was third in OBP (.607) this summer, was one of Post 323’s newcomers. Alongside fellow Indians Tony Patchin, Mike Rivolta, Ethan Haake, as well as ’s Paul Semore, the five recruits ranked in the top six hitters on the team. Existing player Tyler Rutherford ranked third, batting .408 and leading the team with 16 runs.

Post 323’s pitching also took on a new shine. Strengthened by the additions of Hales and lefty reliever Haake, existing hurlers Jimmy Ramage, Alan Sachs, Ben Weeks and Cody Bishop offered an abundance of arms the team hadn’t seen in years. Post 323 finished third in District 9 in offense (7.2 runs per game) and fourth in defense (4.5 runs allowed).

It didn’t take Wentzville long to recognize the potential behind its new lineup. Just two weeks into the season, Post 323 upended eventual District 9 champion St. Charles with a 12-4 drubbing, a win that shocked nearly everyone on the field.

“I had no idea how good we were until that night we beat St. Charles, which we hadn’t done in a long time,” Sellers said. “I think that was as much a surprise to me as it was the St. Charles team. After that, we went on a winning streak in our league, and the guys just kept gaining confidence game after game. Even the two we lost, they weren’t blowout games, and they were against two really good teams.”

Wentzville knocked off seventh-seed Clarksville in the first game of the district tournament, but St. Charles would not be caught off guard again, taking a 5-1 revenge in the second round. Post 323 followed up with a win over Elsberry in the elimination bracket, but ultimately found its fate against the West Jaguars.