Lutheran Cougars Pulls Out 9-5 9-Inning Win Over O'Fallon Christian

O’FALLON, MO —When previously unbeaten Lutheran High School found itself heading to a ninth inning in Wednesday’s baseball game at T.R. Hughes Ballpark against upstart Christian High, head coach Dennis Lueck decided it was time to bring his team together to have a little talk.

“I told them they were the better team, and it’s about time they show it,” Lueck said. “Get a few runs here, and let’s go home. It’s starting to get dark.”

The message must’ve worked. The Cougars went out in that ninth inning and scored four runs in the top half of the inning, then recorded the final three outs in the bottom half, to secure a 9-5 victory over the Eagles and remain undefeated.

“I’m happy with the win, but we’ve got some stuff we need to work on,” Lueck said. “We didn’t play very good fundamental ball early on. And they’ve got some hitters at the top of their lineup, too. But we didn’t show good fundamentals early and we let them in the game.”

Lueck was especially dismayed with the three fielding errors his team committed. But he was also displeased with the several mental mistakes the Cougars made, including at least two baserunning mistakes that cost Lutheran runs, and several instances of failing to bring around a runner in scoring position with what could’ve been the winning run.

“As a rule, we’re usually pretty fundamentally sound,” Lueck said. “So we only needed to talk to them a little bit. We’ve got 11 seniors on the team that have been around awhile.”

Despite the number of seniors, it was two of the younger Cougars that got Lutheran High going in that ninth inning.

Freshman first baseman Luke Swindle led off the inning with a walk, and moved to second on a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt by sophomore shortstop Brendan Klein.

No. 3 hitter Nick Pautler also drew a walk, setting the stage for a critical situation for Austin Holtgrieve. The senior catcher delivered with a basehit to left that scored Swindle, and gave Lutheran the lead for good.

Issues with fundamentals became Christian High’s problem after that, as it allowed Pautler to score on a wild pitch thrown by reliever Austin Averitt, then saw Holtgrieve come all the way around from second on a errant throw to the plate by catcher Corey Canterbury.

The throwing and fielding problems continued for Christian High when Lutheran second baseman Graham Thomason drew a walk, then advanced to third on a bad pickoff throw by Averitt.

Senior Steven Macke delivered an RBI groundout that scored Thomason and gave Lutheran High its fourth run of the inning, which proved more than enough to close out the game.

Lutheran High took advantage of similar Christian High mistakes in the sixth inning to tie the game.

Macke walked to lead off the inning, and advanced to second on a wild pitch. He took third on a groundball out, then scored on another Christian High throwing error, which made the score 5-5.

“They had several miscues as well,” Lueck said. “And we were able to take advantage of some.”

Wednesday’s non-conference tussle between the Cougars and Eagles proved to be a wild contest, with both teams using big innings to take the lead.

Lutheran High had the final big inning, with four runs in the ninth to win the game. But the Cougars also had a three-run inning in the first to grab an early lead.

Klein and Pautler started the initial rally with one-out walks against Christian High starter Josh Matejka. Holtgrieve then drove in Klein with a basehit to put the Cougars on the board.

Two batters later, Pautler and Holtgrieve scored on a two-run single by Macke that made the score 3-0.

Christian High got one run back in the bottom of the first, when freshman shortstop Eli Dilday launched his first high school home run deep over the right-centerfield fence to make the score 3-1.

Dilday’s tape measure shot not only cleared the fences, it sailed way over the rightfield bullpen at T. R. Hughes, and landed in some shrubbery out near the minor league ballpark’s outer perimeter.

“That kid’s got some pop,” Lueck said. “He really is a good looking hitter. That ball he hit was something.”

Lutheran High got that run back in the top of the second, thanks to three errors by Christian High. But the Eagles managed to grab the lead with four runs of their own in the bottom of the second.

Canterbury had an RBI hit, and Dilday drove in two more runs with a smash single to right that tied the score at 4.

Dilday then scored the tally that gave his team the lead, when he crossed the plate following a basehit by senior Billy Billings.

From that point on, both teams pitchers seem to settle down and got batters out with ease, until Christian High’s defensive problems in the sixth and ninth cost them the game.

“Neither team showed great fundamentals today,” Lueck said. “But we’re gonna work on it (Thursday and Friday) and get ready to go on Saturday.”

That Saturday contest will pit Lutheran (5-0) against Springfield Southeast High, and will be played at Busch Stadium, following the Cardinals game against the Florida Marlins that day.

The Lutheran-Springfield Southeast matchup will be part of the Lutheran Day at the Ballpark celebration at Busch Stadium, and will be the third game of the day that day.

Metro East Lutheran High will play Decatur Lutheran, immediately following the Cardinal game, which will then be followed by Lutheran and Southeast.  

Lutheran’s next home game will be Monday, April 4, when the Cougars will host Fort Zumwalt East High, in another non-conference contest, with the first pitch that day set for 4:15 p.m.