Jaguars’ Schwaab Outduels Central’s McGrath In Legion Ball Matchup

O’FALLON–With the first round of the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft going on at the same time about a million miles away near New York City on Monday evening, fans of the Central Spartan and West Jaguar varsity American Legion teams were treated to an old-fashioned big league pitcher’s duel at Westhoff Park.

For five full innings, and part of the sixth, recent high school grads Jimmy McGrath of Francis Howell Central and Andrew Schwaab of Fort Zumwalt West put on performances any one of the players taken in Monday’s draft would have been proud of.

Unfortunately for Central, its defense didn’t quite live up to that standard in the bottom of the sixth and seventh innings, when a number of fielding miscues turned a close game into a 10-0 West blowout win.

“We had kind of a blip in the road there,” Central coach Brian Vaught said. “It was just that one inning that got us really and put us in the spot we were in.”

That one inning, which happened to be the bottom of the sixth, was one Howell Central senior-to-be Drew Watts would love to forget.

The 5-foot-11-inch, usually sure-handed fielder misplayed three deep fly balls in the inning, two of which earned him fielding errors, and all of which helped West tack six runs on its already 1-0 lead, and forced Vaught to yank Watts from the game in favor of backup Brendan Bollinger.

“You kinda feel for the kid,” West head coach A.J. Koenig said. “None of those plays were easy. Even if he would’ve made those catches, they would’ve been tough plays on his behalf. But I felt good about the way we swung the bats that inning.”

Indeed he should have, because even with the three misplays, West strung together several other base hits, including an RBI single by Robert Figueira (his second of the game), and a double by Mike Wilkinson (his second of the game also).

West got three more runs in the seventh, thanks to a sacrifice fly by Wilkinson and a two-run double by Tyler Kummer to make it 9-0.

Then in the eighth, Tyler Markum laced a base hit up the middle, his fourth of the game, to drive in Matt Mosley with West’s 10th run, which brought an end to the game.

“We started to hit the ball on a line more in the later innings,” Koenig said. “That was a much better job by the offensive players.”

As it turned out though, they didn’t need to do much. Schwaab, who is headed to Crowder College in Neosho, MO, this fall, was just that good.

In seven innings work, he shut out Central with just one hit, one walk and a hit batter, while striking out 14 Spartans. He picked up at least one strikeout in every inning and struck out the side in the fourth and seventh innings.

“I loved it, it was awesome,” Schwaab said. “I stayed calm throughout the whole game and didn’t let anything get ahead of me and just kept pitching.”

Before the defensive debacle in the sixth, McGrath, who is headed to Lindenwood University in the fall, was almost as good.

He gave up a run in the first, but held West to just that one run on three hits, with five strikeouts of his own.

“Jimmy pitched really well,” Vaught said. “You can’t take that away from him. We just had a lapse in defense. He’s got to realize that, and come back, and just throw like he did today.”  

Central won’t get too much time to think about Monday’s loss, they’ll be back in action Tuesday night, with a matchup against the St. Charles Post #312 Legion team at C&H Park in St. Peters.

First pitch for that game is slated for 8:30 p.m.

West will also be in action again on Tuesday, they’ll travel to Elsberry, MO, to take on the Elsberry Post #226 Legion team at 7 p.m.

West also has two more home games scheduled this week.

On Wednesday, the Jaguars will host a game against the Washington, MO Post #218 Legion team, and on Friday, they’ll host a matchup against the St. Peters Post #313 team.

Both of those contests will be at Westhoff Park, and are scheduled for 8:30 p.m. starts.