The St. Louis U. High varsity baseball team knocked off the Rockwood Summit Falcons in its regular season finale, and is now preparing for Kirkwood in the quarterfinals of the Class 6 District 2 playoffs.

On Wednesday, April 12, the Jr. Bills ventured to Fenton to take on Rockwood Summit in what would be their last regular season game of the year. The team anticipated relying on junior Jack DuMont to make his first start of the season on the rubber, but due to half of the team’s Covid-19 test results not being back, the coaching staff was forced to improvise on the spot. 

Looking to break the team’s six-game losing streak, and now dealing with the unforeseen circumstance of ten players deemed ineligible, the Jr. Bilikens turned to freshman Andrew DuMont on the bump.

DuMont answered the bell and stepped up for the Jr. Bills when they needed him most. Needing only 78 pitches, he tossed a complete game shutout, surrendering only four hits and striking out five Falcons. 

Senior Andrew Loeffelman delivered with a solo bomb over the left field fence in the top of the second inning, his second home run of the year, to put the Jr. Bills out in front 1-0 which proved to be all that DuMont would need for SLUH to edge past the Falcons.

The Jr. Bills added two insurance runs in the top of the seventh inning with RBI base hits from sophomore Henry Zenor and junior Tommy Etling. Junior first baseman Dennis Jakubik contributed a multi-hit day, and SLUH cruised to a 3-0 victory. 

In a roller coaster of a season, the Jr. Bills have had their fair share of highs and lows, but they refreshingly snapped their six-game losing streak and closed out the regular season with a win and an 8-14 record. 

SLUH (8-14; No. 4 seed) will look to ride this momentum against 11-14 Kirkwood (No. 5 seed) in a win-or-go-home district playoff quarterfinal game tonight at Sheridan Stadium at 4:30 p.m. 

The Jr. Bills will approach the game with a small-ball mentality and will lean on sophomore Garret Shearer (1-3) to square off against Kannon Nesslage (2-3) in what should turn out to be a full-on pitcher’s duel. 

If the Jr. Bills advance past the Pioneers then they will face the winner of 19-10 CBC (No. 1 seed) and 2-12 Ritenour (No. 8 seed) in the semifinals tomorrow at Sheridan Stadium at 4:30 p.m. 

De Smet (11-16; No. 2 seed) will face off against 6-10 Hazelwood Central (No. 7 seed) and 10-12 Pattonville (No. 3 seed) will face 5-20 Hazelwood West (No. 6 seed) to round out the other side of the bracket.