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EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville High’s under-15 summer baseball team finished out their schedule Sunday in the rain-delayed Diamond Sports Promotions Midwest Classic tournament winning once to reach bracket play, but dropping their final group-play game and their semifinal game to finish out the summer with a 14-4-2 mark for the summer.
“I was really impressed with the way our guys competed this year,” said Tiger coach Tim Funkhouser. “As a 15-u team only, we had to face a lot of teams that were 16 years old, a lot of teams that were physically bigger than us, stronger than us or whatever, but we played the game really well and competed; we were in every game that we played for the most part.
“I thought a lot of times, we continued to out-compete teams and keep playing the games; it was fun.”
The main goal for the team was to give younger players in the EHS program a chance to gain experience that would help them when the next high school baseball season gets under way in spring 2019. “Their goal is to get out there and compete and get better at different things, get more consistent and you learn a lot about your failure,” Funkhouser said. “I think that’s the good thing about the summer is that you identify - ‘hey, these are the weak areas I need to get better at.’
“For our 15-under guys, you need to get stronger, make adjustments within your swing, get more consistent with your actions and your movements so you can throw the ball or field the ball more consistent and mentally, you need to continue to process the game at a faster pace; as you get older, that’s all it’s going to do is play at a faster pace.”
Edwardsville won their Sunday morning opener over the Pekin Gamers club, taking a 6-1 victory as EHS got out to a 5-0 lead through four innings to run out winners. Zak Zoelzer had a 2-for-4 game with two doubles and two RBIs, while Trent Schroeder went 1-for-3 with a double and run scored, Hayden Moore was 2-for-4 with a double and run scored, Evan Funkhouser was 3-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored, Jack Basarich 1-for-4 and Conrad Heppler 2-for-3 with an RBI and run scored.
Quinn Weber got the win, striking out four for the game.
The Tigers fell to the Missouri Bulls in their group-play finale by a 15-9 score; no information was available for the game, but it did put EHS into the semifinals in bracket competition, where they were eliminated with a 6-0 loss to the St. Louis Naturals U-15 – Rhodes team. Weber had the only hit of the game for Edwardsville in the loss.
The Naturals took the championship with a 5-3 win over Rawlings Xtreme Broyles in the final Sunday afternoon.
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Feeney, 56, is a native of Granite City and graduated from Granite City South in 1978. He was a part-time writer for the old Granite City Journal from 1979-84 before attending Eastern Illinois University in Charleston,
from which he earned his BA in journalism in 1988. He has worked for newspapers in Sikeston, Mo., Rocky Mount, N.C., Seneca, S.C. and in Charleston-Mattoon. He also worked for the old St. Clair County Suburban
Journals.
