GREENVILLE — Every baseball season has two seasons lumped into it: the regular season and the postseason.
So far, the St. Anthony Bulldogs baseball team is entering the “second season” with a ton of momentum on its side. That only continued on Wednesday in a sectional semifinal of the Class 2A Greenville Sectional at Greenville High School.
St. Anthony defeated the Breese (Central) Cougars, 6-3, to advance to the sectional championship game against the Freeburg Midgets today at 11 a.m.
“We’ve come a long way this year,” senior Aiden Lauritzen said. “We’ve become more of a team and are more together.”
“It means everything,” senior Rogan Allen added. “Coach Blake [Malatestinic] keeps saying, ‘If you’re not playing for yourself, play for your seniors.’”
The Bulldogs struck first, scoring one run in the first inning and two in the second.
Henry Brent started the game with a walk.
Alex Mayer then hit a single before Lauritzen lined out to center, allowing Brent to tag from second and advance to third.
Charley Spour then hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Brent, to make it 1-0.
Curtis Tingley started the second frame with a walk.
Allen then hit a double, pushing Tingley to third.
Xander Beals followed, doubling to right, to score two more runs.
Brent hit an RBI single in the fourth inning on a bloop single to right field.
St. Anthony scored runs in the fifth and sixth innings as well.
Central scored three runs in the top of the fifth.
Brent had two hits, two RBI and one run scored. Mayer had one hit. Blake Verdeyen had one hit and one RBI. Allen had one hit (one double). Beals had one hit (one double) and two RBI. Spour had one RBI and Lauritzen, Tingley, Freddie Jansen and Will Bierman each scored one run.
Hayden Bushur allowed four hits, three runs and four walks to three strikeouts over 4 2/3 innings.
“We looked through stats and I knew they were solid one through nine,” Bushur said. “I had to get ahead with all of my pitches.”
Bushur has three pitches in his arsenal: the fastball, the changeup and the slider.
He noted that the slider wasn’t working as well in this particular game.
Malatestinic knows that it’s always good to have options, though.
“If he doesn’t have one, it’s nice to have the other,” he said. “He’s got a really good changeup. With a lefty that’s not throwing as hard, what he does do is command all three of his pitches.”
Maddux Clark and Beals followed. Clark threw 1/3 of an inning; Beals allowed two hits and one walk to one strikeout in two innings.
Alex Athmer had two hits and one RBI for the Cougars. Conlan Haar and Kaden Henss each had one hit. Miles Browne had one hit, one RBI and one run scored. Bryce Wieter had one hit (one double) and Lincoln Radake and Landon Toennies each scored one run.
Athmer started and allowed six hits, six runs (five earned) and five walks to five strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings. Aidan Huegen followed and threw 1/3 of an inning.