St. Vincent wins C2D3 opener, sets up Chaffee rematch in semis

St. Vincent’s Andrew Hotop makes contact with a pitch against Puxico in the Class 2 District 3 Tournament on Saturday, May 9, at the Perry Park Center in Perryville, Mo.

Tony Capobianco ~ tcapobianco@semoball.com

It was the battle of the Indians to open the Class 2 District 3 Tournament.

St. Vincent played a proper host to Puxico and won 10-0 in five innings on Thursday, May 9, in Perryville, Mo.

“We finally came out with some energy,” St. Vincent head coach Corey Sauer said. “At times this year, we’ve been flat. We have a lot of talent. It’s a good group of guys. When we show up ready to play baseball, we have a pretty good unit.”

St. Vincent took a 4-0 lead in the first inning, highlighted by a two-run double by Trenton Welker. Overall, the lineup collected 10 hits but also drew six walks and was hit by five pitches.

“Just a good approach,” Sauer said. “Their guy kind of mixed in a bunch of breaking balls, kind of a soft tossed a little bit to keep us off balance.”

After Andrew Schumer drove in a run on a base hit in the fourth inning to extend the lead to 5-0, St. Vincent closed out the game with a 5-run fifth inning to trigger the run rule.

Gus Unterreiner started the rally with an RBI single to score Simon Barber, who led off the inning with a single of his own. Nick Buchheit drove in Unterreiner with a double to make it a 7–0 game. After a walk and hit-by-pitch to load the bases, Jacob Seabaugh drove in two runs on a single and Tyler Hennemann ended the game with his second RBI of the game.

“The bats came out alive in the last inning, which was nice,” Sauer said. “I was sweating it there for a minute.”

Seabaugh and Barber, one of St. Vincent’s two seniors, were the only two batters to collect multiple hits for St. Vincent. Senior third baseman Christian Schaaf also hit a double to open his final playoff appearance.

“Any time it gets to district time and playoff time for your seniors, they’re going to play harder, naturally,” Sauer said. “It just so happens that those two are two of our best, two of our leaders who play the game very well and are very knowledgeable. They are going to show up every day because they know it’s do or die.”

Buchheit went the full five innings on the mound, giving up only one hit with two walks and four strikeouts.

“One thing about Nick Buchheit is you know when he’s on the mound, he’s gonna be around the zone and throw strikes,” Sauer said. “He’s 1B because he’s gonna give you strikes.”

St. Vincent (8-12) will take on Chaffee (21-4) in the district semifinal on Saturday, May 11. Chaffee won the district championship last season and went all the way to finishing third place in the state.

The two teams recently played at Chaffee on April 8, the day of the eclipse, with the Red Devils winning 13-1 in four innings. They have beaten St. Vincent in 10 straight meetings but

Sauer expects a different outcome this time around.

“I don't write off many losses,” Sauer said. “Chaffee’s had our number. They're a good group of kids. They're very well-coached. They can swing it. They can pitch up and down, they got like 10 arms, they got plenty. Do I think we can compete with them? Absolutely. When we show up and play around a baseball we can but they're good. It can be tough.”

Sauer said Seabaugh is expected to pitch for St. Vincent on Saturday.

“He's been obviously one of our better arms all year,” Sauer said. “He's got good stuff, gives us a good chance to win.”

Puxico sees its season end with a 5-8 record, marking it the third consecutive five-win season.