O’Fallon sends Edwardsville home early
Paul Kopsky/STLhighschoolSPORTS.com | O'Fallon's Casey Truitt (10) turns the pivot on a double play with Edwardsville's Tyler Mikrut sliding in during the second inning Tuesday at O'Fallon.
O’FALLON, ILL. • Junior Cody Seeberger drove in six runs Tuesday afternoon to help host O’Fallon down Edwardsville 13-1 at Blazier Field in O’Fallon City Park in a Southwestern Conference game called after 4½ innings because of the 10-run rule.
But Seeberger, who is played for his third high school in three years, said it wasn’t him driving in the runs.
“It’s not about the individual team,” he said after his high-school best performance. “I didn’t have the RBIs. My team had to get on base for ’em. I just knocked ’em in. They’ve got to do what they’ve got to do. I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do.”
For the righthanded-swinging Seeberger, it was hitting with runners in scoring position. He crushed two doubles against a hefty crosswind that probably would have been home runs on a normal day and wound up 3 for 4. He also reached on a fielding error in the fourth inning.
“He is a really good kid,” said Panthers coach Jason Portz, whose team improved to 7-4 overall and 3-0 in the conference. “He really likes the game and he’s really coachable. He’s been a nice addition to the team. He has bought into the team concept. We think the guys working with him here are helping him.”
Seeberger, whose dad works for a home-building company in St. Louis, played his freshman year at Lafayette High School before moving to Louisville, Ky. last year. The family then moved back to the area this year. It is Seeberger’s eighth different school in five years.
“He’s come into a new community and our teammates have done a good job accepting him,” Portz said. “He’s been receptive. It’s a credit to him to come in and be coachable and be open to suggestions. Then making those adjustments on the field.”
Seeberger, who began the day hitting .333 with six RBIs, started O’Fallon off on the right foot when he smacked a two-out two-run double off Tigers starter Nathan Coonrod (1-2) in the bottom of the first driving in Rob Bohnenstiehl and Miles Quintal, who had reached on a two-out walk and a two-out single respectively.
He continued his onslaught in the second inning as the Panthers scored four more times off Coonrod, the last three coming when Seeberger swatted a bases-loaded double to right-center on an 0-2 pitch that plated Cal Stierwalt, Bohnenstiehl and Quintal.
Seeberger added his sixth RBI off reliever Bill McFarland in the third when Seeberger singled to center to bring in Quintal. The run was the last of five in the inning as O’Fallon led 11-1 after three innings.
The Panthers added two more in the fourth off reliever Chris Erickson with Quintal driving in one of the runs. He finished with three RBIs for the contest.
“We’ve got a lot of unselfish kids,” Portz said. “It takes an unselfish player to hit with two strikes. To go up there (to the plate) and shorten up (his swing) and give yourself a chance to shoot one through (the infield). That says a lot about our guys.”
Meanwhile, O’Fallon starter Alex Young (2-0) pitched an excellent game allowing only four hits and one walk while striking out three. He was able to get Zach Sedlacek to ground into two double plays and Young’s only blemish came in the third when Tyler Hasty led off with a double to right. Hasty was sacrificed to third by Jared Krebs and Tim Messer brought Hasty home with a two-out double to left.
“I don’t think you ever expect to get beat period,” said Edwardsville coach Tim Funkhouser, whose team dropped to 5-3 overall and 1-2 in the league. “To get beat like that, you don’t expect that either. You expect to go in and compete. They did a lot of things well and we didn’t do as many. Obviously the score dictated that.”
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