The St. Louis U. High varsity baseball team tallied its second consecutive win versus De Smet last Thursday, but dropped three consecutive contests to drop to 7-10: a loss in a rematch against De Smet on Friday and losses versus O’Fallon and Edwardsville on Saturday afternoon. Before heading into districts next weekend, SLUH will face Vianney twice, Helias Catholic, Troy Buchanan, and Rockwood Summit.

The Jr. Bills traveled to Creve Coeur last Thursday for a matchup against De Smet (7-12), looking to ride the momentum from their thrilling 2-1 win against CBC and to notch their second straight MCC victory. 

SLUH landed the first punch of the fight with an RBI single from senior Tyler Ridgway in the top of the first inning, pushing SLUH out in front 1-0. SLUH’s offense cooled off pretty quickly though, and De Smet came back to plate four earned runs on starting pitcher freshman Andrew DuMont through 3.1 innings of work. 

DuMont struck out six Spartans in his outing, but got himself into a jam in the fourth and had to be relieved by senior John Wimmer who, although he walked two batters, managed to keep the deficit at three runs for the Jr. Bills. 

After having 12 straight batters retired, the  Jr. Billikens’ offense came out hot in the sixth and seventh innings, knocking the Spartans’ starting pitcher out of the game and putting up seven runs, highlighted by two more RBIs for Ridgway, three RBIs and a 2-for-3 day at the plate by freshman Charlie Isom-McCall, a two-RBI base knock by junior Zach Petlansky, and a 3-for-4 day with two runs scored by leadoff hitter sophomore Henry Zenor. 

Senior Tommy Pollard tossed a clean fifth inning and struck out two Spartans to earn his first win of the season. Junior Tucker Thomas followed suit with his first relief appearance of the year, as he manned the mound for the last two innings of the game and picked up the save in the Jr. Bills’ 8-4 win. 

SLUH had a chance to extend its winning streak to three games in another Friday night showdown against the Spartans. The Jr. Billikens put up two runs in each of their first two frames at the dish, but just couldn’t match De Smet’s high-powered offense under the lights at Sheridan Stadium. 

SLUH’s starting pitcher, sophomore Garret Shearer, struck out four but surrendered two long balls and seven runs in 3.1 innings of work. Junior John Loretta was the first to jog out of the bullpen, and gave up one unearned run, but got out of the fourth inning jam. Junior Coby Spratte followed Loretta and allowed one more run and struck out one in the fifth inning frame. Sophomore Parker Guthrie pitched a clean 1.2 innings with one strikeout and junior Patrick Mooney made his debut on the bump to record the last out of the ballgame, but the damage had already been done. 

On the offensive side of the ball, senior Jake Noonan led the way going 2-for-4 with two RBIs, and Loretta and junior Tommy Etling each contributed an RBI of their own, but the offense couldn’t match the Spartans’ charge and the Jr. Billikens lost 9-6.

SLUH traveled across the Mississippi River last Saturday for a doubleheader against non-conference foes O’Fallon and the area’s top team, Edwardsville. 

Senior John Wimmer got the nod to start for the Jr. Bills, but surrendered five runs in 3.1 innings of work, which would be all the Panthers from O’ Fallon would need. 

Senior Andrew Loeffelman, Zenor, and sophomore Parker Guthrie each tallied an RBI for SLUH, but it was not enough, as the Jr. Bills lost the contest 7-4. 

The latter game of the day turned out to be a complete slugfest which saw the Tigers outmuscle the Jr. Bills. Loeffleman hammered a home run for the Jr. Bills which knotted the game at six apiece, but an Edwardsville player corked his second grand slam of the day to break the tie en route to a 14-9 Edwardsville win. 

Looking to snap their three-game losing streak and fight for seeding in districts, the Jr. Bills will embark on two crucial games against Vianney, one which was last night, and one which will be at 7 p.m. tonight at Sheridan Stadium. The varsity team will round out their weekend with a split doubleheader at 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 8 with games against Helias Catholic and Troy Buchanan to celebrate senior day.