EFFINGHAM — The St. Anthony Bullpups made history just under one month ago, when the baseball team captured the program’s first state championship for the sport in school history.
St. Anthony defeated Lexington in the championship game, 8-1. Before that, the Bullpups took down Bloomington Corpus Christi in the first round, 10-3, and Peoria Limestone Walters in the semifinals in 10 innings, 5-3.
“It’s pretty cool being the first team in St. Anthony history to win a state championship, especially because we’ll remember it for the rest of our lives,” Eli Bales said.
Head coach Tony Hann knew his team was talented.
What he didn’t know was whether they were talented enough to win the tournament.
“St. Anthony is traditionally pretty good, so we always knew we’d have a competitive team,” Hann said. “Last year, being as strong as we were and losing at state, we knew we were losing some really good players, so I wasn’t sure we had the team to match that. About halfway through the season, when we started playing some really good competition and we started really coming together, that’s when I knew we had a team that could go to state.”
The Bullpups have brought back six state baseball trophies in their history. The last one was a fourth-place trophy in 2018. St. Anthony hasn’t played for a state championship since 2014, when they lost to Joliet St. Paul, 5-3, and finished runner-up.
Bales said that the win against Peoria Limestone Walters brought back flashbacks from one year ago, when the Bullpups lost in the first round in 12 innings to Roanoke-Benson.
“For me, it was bringing back memories. I remembered last year at state, we lost in extra innings; going into 10 innings, it brought back some memories, but I’m just glad that we played as a team and got through it and won,” he said.
St. Anthony finished last season 20-2.
This year, the Bullpups were 21-4.
Parker Phillips noted that the season was rough at the beginning, but once they figured everything out and started putting all the pieces of the puzzle together, it was smooth sailing from then on.
“The season started rough; the coaches were harder on us and we didn’t like it, but we worked hard and figured out what we all had to do and it worked,” Phillips said. “I think that taught us to work hard, trust the process and play as a team.”
Phillips earned the win in the title game. He threw 6 1/3 innings and allowed five hits, one run and one walk to nine strikeouts.
“I was really nervous,” Phillips said. “I just knew I had to throw hard, throw strikes and keep myself together. I didn’t want to mess it up for the team. We all wanted that championship.”
“Parker is definitely our hardest thrower,” Hann added. “He’s got the nastiest stuff, but he can be a little hit-and-miss sometimes. We knew that going into that last game, we had a good shot because we had deep pitching. To end the game with him, who has the speed of someone who’s opening up the series, the question was, ‘Is he going to be able to hold it together?'”
He did just that.
Reed Schumacher came in to relieve Phillips for 2/3 of an inning. He had two strikeouts in his outing.
“I came in for the last two outs. I was nervous, but I just fought through it and told myself I could do it,” Schumacher said.
Hann noted that his team’s pitching was “deep” all year long.
“Parker’s the fastest, but all the other pitchers have really good location,” he said. “They mix up a lot of pitches and are very smart, pitching-wise. A lot of the pitchers that we faced threw harder than our guys, but I don’t think they threw better than our guys.”
Additionally, St. A also had a strong catching unit.
“Kolin [Kiefer] was one of our catchers. Ryan [Wohltman], who was a seventh grader, was one of our catchers and then of course, Parker, who’s got a cannon of an arm. We liked having Parker behind the plate and that’s another thing that helped us because with the other three or four pitchers we had, we could put Parker behind the plate and feel that we weren’t losing anything on the mound.
“We were pretty strong in the catcher’s spot.”
The hitting was just as incredible.
The Bullpups ended the tournament going 36-for-106, a .339 batting average, with 19 RBI, three doubles and two triples. They tied a state record for most hits in the tournament. The only other team to match them was Streator St. Anthony, who set the mark in 2007.
“Hitting-wise, from top to bottom, we have good at-bats,” Hann said. “A lot of teams that we played, we called ‘top-heavy.’ The first three or four players were tough outs. Then, when you got down to the bottom, their batting dropped off a little bit.
“Ours didn’t.”
Hann credited assistant coach “Coach” Sam Vineyard for the work there.
Vineyard and Doug Wohltman were the two assistant coaches aiding Hann.
“As the season went on, we shared a lot of responsibilities,” Vineyard said. “We would break practice up and with 26 kids, you have to have a lot of different stations and activities because we had huge numbers this year. I tried to do the cage work and then Tony and Doug handled a lot of pitching and defense and things like that.”
Hann treated each fellow coach similarly. He didn’t refer to them as assistants.
“Basically, we had three head coaches. Without all three of us, I don’t think we go all the way,” Hann said.
Phillips finished the tournament going 6-for-15 with two runs, three RBI, one double and one triple. Schumacher went 7-for-14 with three runs and one RBI. Luke Roewe went 5-for-12 with two runs and two RBI. Jaxon Having went 5-for-12 with five runs and one triple. Paxton Coulter went 5-for-10 with one run, two RBI and one double. Sam Vineyard went 5-for-9 with one run, eight RBI and one double. Bentley Baudier went 1-for-8 with one run. Kiefer went 0-for-12 with two RBI. James Gilmore scored twice and Brooks Niebrugge scored once.
“It was really nerve-racking because there were a lot of moments that I thought that we were going to win and there were a lot of moments that I thought we were definitely going to lose,” said Sam Vineyard of his team’s season. “It was a mix of both.”
Sharing this moment with his father was also a lifelong memory.
“I think it’s really cool that he’s able to coach me,” he said. “We have a really good connection.”
Overall, nothing will beat the emotion shown on the field after the final out was recorded.
Phillips will remember that scene for the rest of his life.
“It felt great to win the first [state title] in school history. I couldn’t believe it,” Phillips said. “I started jumping, screaming and running to my teammate, Eli, who was always pumping me up and keeping me focused on what I needed to do. We worked hard and played like a ‘dog,’ felt like a ‘dog,’ and fought all weekend to win that championship.”