SV baseball falls to Chaffee, ending season

St. Vincent went toe-to-toe against the top seed in the district. However, it wasn’t enough. The Indians had their chances, but ultimately fell 8-5 to Chaffee in the Class 2, District 3 tournament on May 11.
“Chaffee is a good team,” St. Vincent coach Corey Sauer said. “We fought tooth and nail the whole way. We missed some opportunities and momentum swings, but that’s baseball. To keep it interesting until the end is all you can ask for.”
Chaffee’s offense went to work early as Levi McKinnie led the game off by reaching first on a dropped third strike. The next batter, Eli Glueck, was hit in the head, giving Carson Spies runners on first and second with nobody out. Spies grounded into a fielders choice, bringing Leyton Hanback to the plate with runners on the corners. Hanback singled home a run and the next better, Easton Fowler plated another run with a sacrifice fly to give the Red Devils an early 2-0 lead.
Chaffee added another run in the second inning, taking advantage of three walks in the inning that gave Chaffee a 3-0 advantage. St. Vincent finally countered in the third inning and got on the board. A leadoff single by Andrew Hotop set the table for the top of the order. After stealing second base, Simon Barber drove in Hotop to make it 3-1 after an error Barber came around to score on a two-out infield single by Nick Buchheit to narrow the deficit to 3-2.
McKinnie was relieved by Glueck after tossing three innings, allowing two runs, both unearned, while striking out three.
Glueck found himself in trouble after allowing a leadoff single to Tyler Hennemann and after Carson House reached on an error. With two on and nobody out, the Indians gave Gavin Hotop the bunt sign. Hotop tried to get the bunt down in an 0-2 count and after missing the bunt, McKinnie picked off House to quickly end the Indians rally, and possibly change the game and swing the momentum back to the Red Devils.
“The biggest thing that we didn’t want to do is hit into a double play,” Sauer said. “Bunting with two strikes is not typical baseball, but if he misses it, then it’s a strikeout and not a double play. However, the momentum went right to them.”
If that didn’t do it, Chaffee certainly did it the next inning as Chaffee scored four times to go ahead 8-2 in the fifth inning.
Leading off the bottom of the sixth, Buchheit singled and following a strikeout, Henneman walked to set the table for the Indians.
Buchheit was nearly thrown out advancing to third on a passed ball as Red Devils third basemen Leyton Hanback did not apply the tag.
Buchheit scored on a throwing error by Hanback with two-outs in the sixth as St. Vincent made it 8-3 Chaffee
Batting with two-outs and the bases loaded, Hennemann was hit by a pitch to push a run across and make it 8-4.
House reached base on an infield single, scoring another run and bringing the winning run to the plate.
After pulling McKinnie after three innings, Horrell turned back to McKinnie searching for the game’s final out.

McKinnie delivered, striking out Gavin Hotop and ending the Indians season at 8-13. The Indians will graduate two seniors, Christian Schaaf and Barber.
“We have a lot coming back, but you can’t replace what Christian and Simon bring to the table with their leadership out on the field moving people around and talking to everyone.”
St. Vincent vs Puxico
St. Vincent baseball coach Corey Sauer wanted to get off on the right foot in the postseason.
The Indians did just that in the opening round. St. Vincent scored early and late to blow past Puxico 10-0 on May 9 in Perryville.
Sauer was excited to see his team come ready to play from the start.
“We finally came out with some energy,” Sauer said. “At times this year, we’ve been flat. We have a lot of talent. It’s a good group of guys. When we show up ready to play baseball, we have a pretty good unit.”
St. Vincent showed their energy from the opening inning scoring four runs, which was drove home by a two-run double by Trenton Welker. Overall, the lineup collected 10 hits but also drew six walks and was hit by five pitches.
Andrew Schumer drove in a run on a base hit in the fourth inning to extend the lead to 5-0, St. Vincent closed out the game with a 5-run fifth inning to trigger the run rule.
Gus Unterreiner started the rally with an RBI single to score Simon Barber, who led off the inning with a single of his own. Nick Buchheit drove in Unterreiner with a double to make it a 7–0 game. After a walk and hit-by-pitch to load the bases, Jacob Seabaugh drove in two runs on a single and Tyler Hennemann ended the game with his second RBI of the game.
“The bats came out alive in the last inning, which was nice,” Sauer said. “I was sweating it there for a minute.”
Seabaugh and Barber, one of St. Vincent’s two seniors, were the only two batters to collect multiple hits for St. Vincent. Senior third baseman Christian Schaaf also hit a double to open his final playoff appearance.
St. Vincent also got a good performance on the mound from Nick Buchheit, who went the full five innings on the mound, giving up only one hit with two walks and four strikeouts. Sauer was thankful for his play to keep the full compliment of pitchers available for upcoming games.
St. Vincent (8-12) will take on Chaffee (21-4) in the district semifinal