Funkhouser Saluted With National High School Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame Recognition: Tigers Fall Though In Second Game

EDWARDSVILLE - The Edwardsville baseball team came from behind again, this time from 3-0 and 4-2 down to tie the game in the fifth, but a sixth inning error gave Teutopolis a 5-4 win over the Tigers, and the championship of the 17th annual Tiger Classic round robin tournament Saturday afternoon at Tom Pile Field.

Before the game, Edwardsville head coach Tim Funkhouser was honored by the school's athletic department for his recent induction into the National High School Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame. The players presented him with a commemorative home plate, and the Rawlings Sporting Goods Company, formerly based in St. Louis, also presented commemorative bases which were used in the game, and later taken home by the family.

The Wooden Shoes won the title with a 2-1 record, tied with the Tigers, also 2-1, but Teutopolis won the head-to-head tiebreak to take the tournament title. The Shoes lost to Highland on Friday, 6-1, but bounced back to win over Chatham Glenwood 2-1 before taking the win over Edwardsville. The Bulldogs also finished 2-1, but ended up third on losing to both the Tigers and Wooden Shoes, while the Titans ended up 1-2 on the weekend. After the loss to T-Town, Funkhouser felt the Tigers did play well in the entire tournament, and also had learning opportunities as well.

"It was a good tournament for us," Funkhouser said. "To be in the heat of the battle, when we scheduled this tournament several years ago, we wanted to kind of be in the fire a little bit, to be in the arena, and still have some time to work on some things for the postseason,. and this really helped prepare us. We beat a really good Chatham Glenwood team, and really hit the heck out of the ball, we had five home runs, and really swung it well; we had, like, 14 hits. Then today, in the first game, we struggled swinging it. We didn't take some good (at-bats), gave away some at-bats, Highland got out on us, and fortunately, we were able to rally back, and put some ABs together, and come up with a victory.

"And then, T-Town's got a great team,: Funkhouser continued, "coach (Justin) Fleener and his staff does a great job, their guys are great competitors, and I think they got us the last three times, or three out of four, something like that. They earned it today, we didn't make some plays we needed to make, and they put some swings on some balls. So, we'll just keep fighting back, try to get better, and it'll be good for us in practice to really emphasize the small things."

The Tigers ran into a bit of bad luck in the loss to the Shoes, but a lack of execution also hurt Edwardsville.

"We just didn't execute with runners in scoring position," Funkhouser said. "I think we were one-for-12, so we had runners on base, we just couldn't push them across more than they did. So, credit them, they're a great program, and they play the game really well. I've got so much respect for coach Fleener and his staff over there. That's what helps us grow as a team, too, playing against team like him."

The learning experiences couldn't have come at a better time, with the postseason approaching, and a critical Southwestern Conference series coming this week against Belleville East, which will go a long way in deciding the conference race.

"It's been a long weekend for us," Funkhouser said, "playing a lot of games in a short period of time. But we'll rest up, we'll get some practice again on Monday, and then, be ready for a conference battle again. So, it'll be fun."

Teutopolis went into the lead early on in the first, starting with a walk to Dawson Hoene and a base hit by Devin Worman, then Mick Niebrugge unleashed a ferocious swing on a ball that cleared the fence in left field for a three-run homer that put the Wooden Shoes up 3-0. After that, Tony Eberlin, the Tigers' starting pitcher, settled in and struck out six of the next eight batters.

The Tigers pulled to within 3-1 in the bottom of the first, when Jack Kirgan drew a lead-off walk, but was forced at second on a grounder by Lucas Krebs. Krebs then stole second, and came in on a RBI single by Joe Chiarodo, who went to second on an error. In the second, a lead-off double by Grayson Rathgeb, and Kirgan reaching on an error led to a RBI single by Krebs to make it 3-2. Edwardsville had chances in the third and fourth, but couldn't bring the runners around to tie the game.

In the top of the fifth, T-Town struck on a lead-off walk to Worman, and a RBI double by Niebrugge, who was hung up between second and third, and eventually tagged out. The Tigers tied the game in the bottom of the inning, starting with a single by Max Waltenberger, and a walk to Tyler Powell. Both advanced on a passed ball, and Waltenberger scored on a ground out by Auggie Johnes, and one out later, a RBI single by Hunter Baugh scored pinch runner Mace Karnes to tie the game at 4-4.

The Shoes took the lead back in the top of the sixth, when Henry Thompson led off with a walk, went to second on a wild pitch, and Gavin Addis also drew a walk. On a bunt attempt by Aiden Niemeg, the pitcher threw wildly past third base, allowing Thompson to score, with the other runners going to second and third after a sacrifice. Rathgeb came up with a brilliant diving catch off a ball hit by Worman for the second out, and after an intentional walk, Jason Kreke struck out to end the inning.

Krebs doubled with one out in the bottom of the sixth, but couldn't score as Niemeg, who came in to pitch in the sixth, shut the door on the Tigers to gain the win 5-4.

Kirgan had a hit for the Tigers, while Krebs had two hits, Chiarodo had a hit and RBI, Waltenberger came up with two hits, both Powell and Rathgeb had hits, Powell had a hit and RBI, Nick Chiarodo came up with a hit, and Johnes drove in a run. Eberlin pitched for four innings, giving up three runs, all earned, on five hits, walking two and fanning six, while Tristan Lance pitched in the fifth, allowing a run on a hit and a walk, striking out one, and Tyler Rudd pitched the final two inning and was charged with the loss, allowing an unearned run on no hits, walking three, one intentionally, and striking out one.

T-Town is now 22-4, while Edwardsville goes to 17-8, and plays Belleville East in its critical SWC series next, the first game on Tuesday at Tom Pile Field, and the return game Thursday at East, then plays at Jersey on Friday, with all games starting at 4:30 p.m.

Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.

Dan Brannan also contributed to this story

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