Powerful SLUH Overtakes Hazelwood Central in Sectional Showdown

To beat the perfect team, the baseball team needed to play a near perfect game. Unfortunately for the , six errors resulted in five unearned runs, and St. Louis University High advanced to the Class 4 state quarterfinals with an 11-6 victory Tuesday night at Sheridan Stadium.

“When you make so many errors and mistakes, good teams are going to capitalize on it,” Central coach said. “But I’m proud of the kids.

"They played hard and came in with a good attitude. SLUH is a good baseball team. We made those mistakes, but I’m proud of our season and what we accomplished.”

The Junior Billikens (24-0) will play at Francis Howell on Thursday. The Vikings knocked off CBC on Tuesday night.

The Hawks (12-11) won their district last week to advance to Tuesday’s sectional game. Vanatta sent his ace to the mound, but he struggled.

Lanky junior left-hander walked only one batter and had three strikeouts throughout five innings, but he hit four batters.

Although the game was at SLUH, the junior Bills were the visitors by virtue of a coin flip. L.J. Hernandez made Harris’ day begin with a 10-pitch at bat that ended with Hernandez reaching on an error.

Mitch Klug followed with a bunt single. Two batters later, Sasha Kuebel reached on another error to score Hernandez. Klug then scored on Andrew Pitts’ RBI single.

“I don’t know what to say,” Vanatta said when asked if the magnitude of the game against an undefeated team got the best of his players. “I don’t know what the problem was. But I’m proud of the kids. We had an up-and-down year and came on at the end of the year. We eliminate those errors, and who knows what happens?”

The Hawks got a run back in the bottom of the first when Matt Dezort led off with a single and later scored on Noble Hampton’s sacrifice bunt.

Central tied it in the third on an RBI single from Hampton that scored Dajuan Maul, but the inning ended with a scary moment. Harris popped up to shallow left field, and SLUH left fielder Kaleb King collided with Klug, who then fell unconscious on the field.

An ambulance was called, and Klug was taken to the hospital with a reported concussion.

“They’re taking every precaution,” SLUH coach Steve Nicollerat said. “When I got out there (on the field) he was unconscious. He was out for about eight or nine seconds. Then he started coming around, but he really didn’t know what was going on.

“That kind of puts everything really into perspective of what we have here. It’s a game played by 18-year-old kids. The most important thing is that he’s OK.”

The Hawks grabbed the lead in the fourth, capitalizing on a SLUH miscue.

Jamal Hughes led things off with a single and scored on a two-out triple from second baseman Joey Shell, who took advantage of a shallow outfield by popping the ball over the head of SLUH center fielder Paul Simon. Maul then walked and both Shell and Maul scored when Simon misplayed a Dezort line drive.

The Junior Bills took the lead for good in the fifth as four Central errors led to four unearned runs.

The inning began with Harris plunking Matt Binz. Willie Floros then grounded to short for what appeared to be a double play ball, but Shell couldn’t handle the throw from shortstop Mike Eagan and both runners were safe. After three singles, a walk and three more Central errors, the Jr. Bills led 7-5.

“We hit the ball well and hit it right at them,” Nicollerat said. “We took advantage of some miscues and hit the ball hard and we had good enough pitching to keep us in the game.”

Eagan, who had both first-inning errors and another in the decisive fifth, led off the bottom of the fifth with a single and scored on a Harris single.

Kuebel, the SLUH ace bound for Iowa in the fall, pitched the final two innings to get the save. He scored on a Simon sacrifice fly in the sixth after drawing a walk. Catcher Sam Knesel’s leadoff triple sparked a three-run seventh to cap the scoring.

BOX SCORE - CLASS 4 SECTIONAL

SLUH 11, HAZELWOOD CENTRAL 6

SLUH    200 051 3 – 11 11 1

Central  101 310 0 –   6   9  6

SLUH (24-0) – Hernandez 1-5; Klug 1-2; Kuebel 2-4, RBI; Pitts 2-4, 2B, RBI; King 2-4; Knesel 1-3, 3B; Rund 2-2, 2BI. WP – Clark IP-1 H-3 R-1 ER-1 BB-0 K-0.

Central (12-11) – Dezort 2-4, 3 SB; Eagan 1-3; Hampton 1-2, 2RBI; Harris 1-4; Hughes 1-3; Seitrich 2-2; Shell 1-3, 3B, RBI.