Friday, August 10, 2007 11:03 PM CDT
Winters comes through on hot summer day
AMERICAN LEGION STATE TOURNAMENT
By Mike Monahan Staff Writer
mmonahan@jg-tc.com
MATTOON – Scott Winters, a southpaw for Arlington Heights American Legion Post 208 was made his first appearance in the state tournament at Grimes Field in Peterson Park one to remember as he allowed just two infield hits in eight and a third innings as Post 208 eliminated St. Charles Post 342 2-0 Friday in the first game of the day.
The two teams are very familiar with each other both teams had the same starting pitchers (Winters and Zach Deutscher) going in the Champaign Wooden Bat tournament in July with St. Charles coming away with a 2-1 victory. Earlier in the year Arlington Heights won 6-5.
“He (Winters) had some tough losses,” said Arlington Heights coach Lloyd Meyer. “He had lost three games and two of them were one-run games. He had good stuff. His fastball had some sink to it. He also had a good change-up going, but mainly it was his fastball.”
Winters threw 115 pitches and allowed just four fly balls as he improved to 8-3 on the season.
Arlington Heights, the defending state champions, had just four hits in the pitching battle and scored one run each in the third and sixth innings.
The first run of the game that featured six total hits in the pitching battle, occurred when the No 9 batter, Matt Lorenz, drew a base on balls and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Tim Churchill. Billy Smith hit a shot that was snagged by the second baseman as he dove to his right. However, his throw was in the dirt, allowing Smith to reach on an error and Lorenz advance to third. Lorenz scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by Kyle Gaedele. The right fielder appeared to have thought it was the third out as he began to jog with the ball towards the dugout.
“We had some mental lapses,” said St. Charles coach Dale Wilderspin.
Post 208, who improved to 32-10 with the win, added an insurance run when Smith led off the sixth by walking. He was forced out at second as Gaedele reached on a fielders’ choice. Arlington Heights executed a hit and run to perfection as Jason Ganek, who is headed to play at the University of Illinois at Chicago, singled to left and Gaedele reached third. Gaedele scored when Matt Serna reached on a fielder’s choice.
“Getting that second run was gigantic,” said Meyer. “We played small ball. It took away there base running.”
St. Charles threatened in the ninth when with one out Jordan Ask reached on a bad-hop infield single as the ball took a wicked hop over the shortstop. Alex Beckman drew a base on balls and Meyer elected to go with Trace Ruffie. Ruffie got the next batter to pop-up to the shortstop, Ganek and the game ended on a ground ball to the second baseman, Lorenz, who threw to the first baseman, Serna for the final out.
“We have 12 of the 18 players back next year,” said Wilderspin. “I am proud of the kids. We have been to state two out of the last three years and are building a tradition at St. Charles. We want to mirror Arlington Heights program. I tip my cap to them. They are one of the better teams in the country let alone state. They made the plays when they needed to.”
Winters had not pitched since last Saturday.
“I came in well rested,” said Winters. “I had a good solid defense behind me and that made it easy for me today.”
Post 208 turned three double plays, including two to end innings. The final one occurred in the sixth inning when with one out and bases loaded Winters fielded the ball and fired to the catcher, Matt Gamber for the force at home. Gamber threw to Serna at first to complete the 1-2-3 twin killing.
Winters, the MVP of the Cook County Tournament who is headed to Heartland Junior College, had faced the minimum number of batters through four and two-thirds innings despite St. Charles have three base runners as one was erased on a double play and one was caught stealing in the second and the other runners was erased on a double play in the third.
St. Charles finished 23-18. Post 342 left only five runners on, but three were in scoring position. St. Charles’ Vincent Frede finished the tournament going 5-of-8 (.625) with two walks.
“Mattoon did a great job of hosting the tournament,” said Wilderspin. “They are first class.”
ST. CHARLES AB R H BI
DeMartino, 2b 3 0 0 0
Ask, cf 4 0 2 0
Beckman, rf 3 0 0 0
Deutscher, p 3 0 0 0
Corrigan, c 4 0 0 0
Frede, lf 1 0 0 0
Roberts, 1b 3 0 0 0
Sentman, 3b 1 0 0 0
Burgess, 3b 1 0 0 0
Dela Torriente, ss 2 0 0 0
Totals 25 0 2 0
S-Dela Torriente
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS AB R H BI
Churchill, rf 3 0 1 0
Smith, cf 2 0 0 0
Gaedele, lf 3 1 0 1
Ganek, ss 4 0 2 0
Serna, 1b 4 0 0 1
Scanlon, 3b 3 0 0 0
Hagel, dh 2 0 0 0
Gamber, c 3 0 0 0
Lorenz, 2b 2 1 1 0
Totals 26 2 4 2
S-Churchill; SF-Gaedele
St. Charles 000 000 000 —0-2-1
Arlington Heights 001 001 00x —2-4-1
Pitching IP H R ER BB SO
St. Charles
Deutscher (L) 8 4 2 1 3 8
Arlington Heights
Winters (W) 8 1/3 2 0 0 6 4
Ruffie (S) 2/3 0 0 0 0 0
Contact Mike Monahan at mmonahan@jg-tc.com or 238-6854.
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