Winners of three in a row, varsity baseball opened the Suburban South Tournament with losses to Rockwood Summit on Monday and Parkway West on Tuesday.
“We were making every play important on our winning streak, but now we’re not,” junior Austin Mischel said. “As a team we have to execute when we have runners on stop trying to do too much.”
After starting the season 0-7, the Colts started to get on track in April with a 7-3 win over the #1 team Howell on Apr. 11. After that they defeated University City and Parkway West last week 9-4 and 14-3 respectively.
“We had a team meeting after a few losses where the seniors discussed a few issues the team needed to overcome,” senior Johnny Naughton said. “The younger guys really bought in to what we had to say and ever since then we have been way more focused during practice and in our last couple of games.”
In the 8 team Suburban South Tournament, the sixth seeded Colts were paired with Summit on Monday who they had previously lost to 10-5 on Mar. 31. After three innings of no-hit pitching by senior Matthew Bernstein, the Falcons broke through with a lead off homer in the 4th inning followed by 3 runs in the 5th inning and 4 runs in the 6th inning to give Summit the 8-1 victory.
“Matthew pitched very well, it’s just a shame we weren’t able to back him up with some runs,” Naughton said.
Naughton accounted for the Colts only run with an RBI double early in the game. In Tuesday’s rematch against Parkway West, the Colts fell 4-3 at home with senior Connor Kraus starting the game on the mound.
“Some games we pitch well and don’t hit like against West today and some games we hit well and struggle on the mound,” Kraus said. “When we got put all the areas together well be in good shape.”
Kraus pitched all seven innings Tuesday and had a lead until the 7th when West scored two. The Colts had a chance to extend their lead in the 5th inning, but senior Sam Riley was thrown out at home which shifted the momentum of the game in West’s favor. Sitting on a 3-9 record, the Colts look to improve by the time district action comes around.
“We have to stay the course and keep putting in the work in practice to fix the things we struggle with,” Kraus said. “What really matters is that were firing on all cylinders when the district tournament comes around so we can make a playoff push.”
The Colts will host University on Wednesday and will go into weekend match ups against Ladue Friday, and De Smet and Vianney on Saturday.
