The varsity baseball team opened its regular season under the lights at Sheridan Stadium on Friday night against the Parkway West Longhorns, the school Jr. Bills’ head coach Ron Ramspott most recently coached at. The team had been practicing in anticipation of this night for almost four weeks, but was stifled in its Opening Day efforts, losing 8-0. 

Junior Alex Shelton led off the game with a scorching line drive base hit, but that proved to be the only hit the Jr. Bills mustered for the remainder of the game. Other than Shelton being walked two more times and junior Tommy Etling reaching base, once via walk and then by virtue of an error, the offense never got anything going.

On the other side of the ball, starter Jake Noonan struggled to find the strike zone consistently, walking four and surrendering five earned runs through three innings of work. Yet, when Noonan had his command honed in, he was extremely effective, striking out seven batters in his limited outing.

Junior John Loretta and senior Tommy Pollard finished off the game on the mound, each contributing two innings of work. Loretta walked one and struck out two while giving up three runs, two earned, and Pollard pitched two perfect innings, striking out two. Yet, by that point, the game was all but wrapped up. 

The Jr. Bills needed a short memory as the next day they had a new challenge with two games against Fort Zumwalt South. In the first game of its doubleheader, the Jr. Bills played a much more competitive game than the night before, but, despite their efforts, they were blanked again in their 5-0 loss. 

The offense managed more base runners across than the previous game, fueled by leadoff hitter sophomore Henry Zenor contributing two base hits and a walk, but the team’s clutch hitting remained absent as, whenever they pushed a runner into scoring position, they could not push him across home plate, at one point even stranding the bases loaded. 

The pitching staff had a much more competitive outing than the night before, as starter Garret Shearer battled for four innings, surrendering four runs while walking three and striking out three. He was relieved in the fifth inning by junior Tucker Thomas who pitched the final three innings of the game, allowing one unearned run while striking out three batters and walking none. Yet, without any run support to speak of, Shearer took the loss and the team dropped to 0-2. 

The Jr. Bills continued on to their second game of the day, again facing Fort Zumwalt South, but despite another hard-fought effort, the team lost its third in a row to begin the season, this time falling 6-5. 

The team leaned on starting pitcher junior Dennis Jakubik, but he could never find a rhythm on the mound as he was riddled by walks and wild pitches. Jakubik lasted 1.2 innings and surrendered six earned runs, striking out two and walking seven. It seemed like this might have been the third straight blowout for the Jr. Bills, but, yet again, the bullpen came up big. Freshman Andrew Dumont made his pitching debut by tossing 5.1 shutout innings to finish off the game, striking out seven and walking just one.

The offense finally woke up, led by sophomore Parker Guthrie, who went two for three with two base knocks, a walk, two runs scored and an RBI. Senior Tyler Ridgway and junior Zach Petlansky added an RBI apiece and Henry Zenor, senior Hayden Zenor, and Shelton added a run scored apiece. Yet, they still stranded a staggering amount of runners, unable to convert another bases loaded situation and then stranding senior Andrew Loeffleman on second base with nobody out in the bottom half of the seventh inning, unable to score him to tie the game.

 After a start that is far from ideal, the Jr. Bills will look to bounce back this week and etch their first tally in the win column with a game at Webster Groves on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m., and two games at Chaminade on Thursday at 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.