Early April was not kind to the St. Vincent Indians.
After posting a 14-5 victory over Woodland in the second round of the Oak Ridge tournament, the Indians were 5-4 on the season. Five days later, they were 5-7.
“Right now, we’re doing a really good job of getting in our own way,” said St. Vincent coach Corey Sauer. “We’re on a three-game losing skid right now, but hopefully, we can get some of that change going into next week after a break here.”
The Indians’ recent three-game skid technically started with an 8-4 loss to Chaffee, followed by a home-and-away sweep by Herculaneum, who topped the Indians 12-5 and 4-3. Sauer said his team’s troubles really began at Oak Ridge, where they suffered a 7-6 loss to Meadow Heights in a first-round game that was played with a time limit after the first round was postponed.
“We were up 6-5 at one point with like 15 minutes left,” Sauer said. “They took the lead, and the time limit kind of got us on that one. It was two awesome arms going at each other with that one, and when that game went final, you could just kind of feel a little bit of life, per see, sucked out of us a little. We thought we could have had them at the end of the game.”
St. Vincent rebounded the next day, turning in a 14-5 victory over Woodland.
“We came out ready to go and we swung it, so I thought, ‘All right. Maybe we’re back to good shape,” Sauer said.
Unfortunately, things didn’t quite go as expected in the Indians’ next game against the Chaffee Red Devils.
“That game, we had Nick Buchheit going, which is one of our better arms,” Sauer said. “Right off the bat, they got to him, and we got down 4-0. Coming off that tournament, we were a little bit short on arms, and I had to play them for the next two games.”
Buchheit gave up 4 runs, 3 earned, on 7 hits in 4 2/3 innings of work, striking out 2 and walking 3. Levi Schilling pitched 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief, giving up 1 hit, while closer Connor Roth gave up 4 earned runs on 3 hits, striking out 1, and walking 2 in 2/3 of an inning.
At the plate, six different batters had 1 hit each, including Cain Clifton, who finished with 2 RBI.
“It’s just one of those days where we didn’t really do anything wrong,” Sauer said. “We played a clean game for the most part. You could tell we were kind of gassed from the weekend.”
The subsequent games against Herculaneum brought fresh challenges, including an injury to the team’s No. 3 batter and planned starting pitcher, who suffered a knee injury in warmups, forcing the team to adjust on the fly.
“I had Andrew Schumer slated to start on [April 15],” Sauer said. “We get up there and he hyperextended his knee — the one he tore his meniscus in twice — during his first inning warmups, so I had to make a pitching change that I was not planning for right off the bat before we even threw a pitch. That kind of put a damper on things.”
With Schumer out, Sauer turned to Tyler Hennemann. The junior gave up 9 runs, 5 earned, on 8 hits in 2 2/3 innings, striking out 2 and walking 5. Clifton pitched 3 1/3 innings in relief, giving up 3 runs on 4 hits while striking out 2 with no walks.
Henneman had a better day at the plate for the Indians, going 1-for-3 with a triple and 3 RBI. Andrew Hotop legged out an inside-the-park home run that also earned him an RBI. He finished 2-for-3 with 2 runs scored.
“We jumped on them early, but a couple things just did not, absolutely did not, go our way in that ball game,” said Sauer, whose team led 5-4 after two innings. Herculaneum rallied in the third with 5 runs, then added 3 more in the sixth.
On April 16, things looked considerably better for the Indians, despite suffering another loss.
Senior starter Jake Seabaugh struck out 14 batters, giving up 4 runs (2 earned) on 7 hits with no walks to take the loss for St. Vincent.
“Jake Seabaugh, on the mound, did exactly what you want,” Sauer said. “One of our best, he goes out and strikes out 14, doesn’t walk a batter, and only gives up 2 earned runs, and we lose 4-3. He did absolutely everything he could. We just couldn’t push runs across, and we had guys on base. We had two errors that basically made the difference.”
At the plate, St. Vincent finished with 3 runs on 6 hits — 2 each from Hotop, Buchheit, and Henneman — with 3 walks, 1 stolen base, and only 3 strikeouts.
Despite the recent struggles, Sauer said he’s optimistic that the team will turn things around, even with the holiday break that saw them idle for five days.
“I’m not a huge fan of big breaks like this,” Sauer said, but I’m giving our guys a little extended break, too, just because when you play that many games in that many days, their arms need a little bit of a break. We kind of need to regroup on some things, too. We’ve had some mental mistakes, we’ve had some physical mistakes, and we’ve just kind of been on a little bit of a slide here lately.”
With 12 games under their belt, Sauer said the Indians are better than their record would indicate.
“Our record is not indicative of where we’re at,” Sauer said. “I would say we’re a much better team than 5-7. You take out a few innings in the season, and we’ve got a couple more wins under our belt. Offensively, I think we’re in an okay place. On the pitching side of things, the numbers you’re going to see on the stat books are really not the story. Our guys have thrown it very well. I’m pleased. Defensively, we have some things to work on, no doubt. “At the halfway point, I mean, I expected us to be a little bit better, record-wise. But overall, play-wise, we’re in a decent spot.”
St. Vincent was scheduled to return to action on Tuesday, hosting Scott City.
“We play a tough schedule,” Sauer said. “We play good competition. I don’t like to cupcake anything because I’d like to get us ready for playoff time. We’re close. We’re right there in a lot of these games. I think once May rolls around and the weather gets consistently warm, I think you’re gonna see a little bit different numbers come across.
“I believe 1,000 percent that this is a good team and they’ll figure it out. We’ve just got to work out those kinks.”
