Rally Falls Short for St. Peters Against Legion Ball Rival St. Charles

ST. CHARLES—Wasted opportunities is one of the most hated phrases in all of sports.

Many teams shape their whole competitive philosophy on not wasting chances, and making the most of the ones they get.

Unfortunately for the St. Peters Post #313 varsity American Legion baseball team, wasted chances have been a big part of their summer season.

And that problem reared its ugly head again Tuesday night at Blanchette Park, when St. Peters suffered a 7-5 loss to rival St. Charles Post #312.

“We’ve had that problem in at least half our games,” St. Peters coach Marty Clements said. “It seems like guys (don’t get going) till the third or fourth inning, and we’re not always coming through when we need to.”

And that was the theme on Tuesday night.

St. Peters had runners in scoring position in all but two innings, including bases-loaded chances in the fourth, seventh, and eighth innings.

But other than a bases-loaded walk and an RBI sacrifice fly, St. Peters wasn’t able to produce any bases-loaded basehits, which could’ve brought the team all the way back from a 7-2 deficit.

“It seemed like we couldn’t get the ball past the pitcher,” Clements said. “We hit two back to him, and one the catcher got to end an inning.”

In all, St. Peters hit into three double plays, two of which were started by St. Charles starting pitcher and recent St. Charles West High graduate Dustin Fuller.

All three twin-killings proved to be rally killers for St. Peters.

But the key play in the game, came in the top of the eighth, when St. Peters rightfielder and recent grad Blake Hetelle drilled a line-drive to the centerfield wall to drive in teammate and schoolmate Tyler Davis, to make the score 7-5.

Lutheran St. Charles grad Austin Holtgrieve also tried to score from first on the play, but St. Charles catcher and Jacob Bothe managed to get the throw and deliver a brilliant swipe tag just before Holtgrieve was able to cross the plate.

“I kinda (stood) staggered over the plate, and just waited for the throw,” Bothe said. “I thought he was going to beat it, but I got the ball, and got me knee down, and we got him. I thought we got him.”

The home-plate umpire agreed, and called Holtgrieve out.

But many fans sitting behind home plate disagreed, and voiced their disagreement fairly loudly.

Clements also disagreed, but after a brief explanation from the umpire, went back to the dugout, seemingly satisfied with the answer he was given.

“That play definitely changed the inning,” Clements said. “But you can’t be mad. I couldn’t really tell if he was safe or out, and the umpire’s right there. He made his call. You just have to live with it.”

St. Peters never really had another scoring chance after that, and went on to lose by the 7-5 count.

A third Fort Zumwalt South product, Ryan Haskell, took loss on the mound for St. Peters, after giving up four runs in two innings work, after relieving St. Peters starter Ian Gump, who gave up one run in his two innings.

Fuller got the win for St. Charles, after going six innings, and giving up just two runs, on five hits, with two walks, and four strikeouts.

At the plate, Hetelle and Davis each had two hits, an RBI, and a run scored for St. Peters, which fell to 10-8 on the summer, and 4-4 in District 9 league play.

St. Charles moved its record to 18-6, and will essentially play the District 9 league championship game at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday night, when it faces the West Jaguars at Westhoff Park in O’Fallon.

With only a few league games left, and both St. Charles and West undefeated against the rest of the league, the winner of that contest will almost certainly finish the year in first place and earn the No. 1 seed when the district playoffs begin in July.

St. Peters’ next game is Friday evening, when it will host Clarksville (MO) Post #349 at City Centre Park. First pitch that night is 7 p.m.