Suburban South Roundup: Seckman Baseball Surging

Suburban South Conference baseball teams have not had a lot of success this season when going out of conference.

Entering the week, none of the league's teams had an overall winning record. But league-leader Seckman High School had a game to remember on Friday against St. Dominic.

St. Dominic was undefeated in eight games against its league and was 11-2 overall. But the Crusaders were no match for the Jaguars last Friday, falling 22-0. The game featured a 16-run third inning for Seckman.

"Sometimes you go out and see things you have never seen before in a baseball game," Seckman coach Brad Hagedorn said. "We had a couple of those things happen in the game against St. Dominic. Both teams were coming off losses earlier in the day and neither team scored in the first two innings."

A lot of that had to do with a triple play executed by Seckman in the first inning. St. Dominic had runners on first and second with no outs when Jaguars center fielder J.B. Arnold made a diving catch of a ball hit in the gap. The runners thought the ball was down and were easily doubled and tripled up. That set the tone for the game and the wild third inning.

"Sam Tramel, who was on base three times in the inning, got things started with a single," Hagedorn said. "And then things started to steam roll. We were very patient at the plate and everything we hit found holes. We were hitting line drive after line drive. I think we had four or five doubles in the inning."

Rain wiped out several games during the week but Seckman remains atop the league standings with a 3-0 mark. Parkway West High School was 3-1 and Kirkwood High School 3-2. Seckman defeated Parkway West, 6-4, last week. Kirkwood won over Parkway North, 5-2, as Ryan Beardon went the distance on the mound and did not allow an earned run. Beardon struck out seven and walked just one.

Girls soccer:
The race in the Suburban South in soccer is extremely tight with Kirkwood, Rockwood Summit High School and Parkway West each at 2-1, and Parkway Central High School and Seckman at 3-2.

Parkway Central has played well lately. The Colts made it three shutouts in a row with a convincing 10-0 win over University City High School last Tuesday. Allison Magruder, Erin Roepke and Molly Cagle had two goals each in the game.

Parkway West had an impressive outing in a non-league game against Francis Howell North, tying the Knights 4-4.

Golf:
Area golf teams began their postseason with district play this week.

Parkway Central finished third in the Class 4 District 3 Tournament last Wednesday at The Missouri Bluffs Golf Club in St. Charles. Only top two teams, which were DeSmet and Chaminade, advance to the sectional round, although the top 15 individuals from players outside DeSmet and Chaminade also advance. Parkway Central had four players qualify to sectionals. The Colts were led by Blake Schiel, who finished tied for sixth. Jason Sobelman, Benjamin Gross and William Melvin also qualified from Central while Jefferson Hartig and Joseph Kindig qualified from Parkway North.

Several Suburban South schools traveled to Cape Girardeau for the Class 4 District 1 Tournament last Thursday. Poplar Bluff and Lindbergh qualified as teams. Rockwood Summit finished fifth among the 10 district schools. Summit's Robert Ray was 11th and will head to sectionals along with Dylan Bickings. Seckman's Dylan Saxner was sixth overall with a nine-over par 81. Anthony Knittig was the other Jaguars qualifier.

Suburban South schools struggled at the Class 4 District 2 Tournament at Persimmon Woods in Weldon Spring. Webster's Michael Becker qualified, but Kirkwood and Parkway West finished at the bottom of the 11-team district and did not have any sectional qualifiers.

Track:
The Kirkwood boys and girls track teams each won their divisions of the Dale Collier Invitational at Kirkwood on Saturday. The Pioneers edged Rock Bridge High School from Columbia, MO in each division. Kirkwood had 121 points, while Rock Bridge had 110 in the boys division. The girls division was even closer with a three-team race as Kirkwood won with 110 points, which was just three more than both Rock Bridge and East St. Louis.

Patch Suburban South Boys Athlete of The Week
The state's most prestigious tennis tournament of the regular season was held last Saturday and Kirkwood's doubles team of Josh Waite and Robert Conroy shined. They were named the Patch Suburban South Male Athletes of the Week. Waite and Conroy were not seeded in the top eight in the draw of 16 but still defeated three seeded teams before falling in three sets in the championship match to Jimmy Hunter and Joe LaRose of  Rock Bridge High School of Columbia, MO.

Patch Suburban South Girls Athlete of The Week
Parkway West junior Meghan Dolan is the Patch Suburban South Female Athlete of the Week. She scored three times in the Longhorns' impressive 4-4 tie against Francis Howell North. Parkway West is 8-8-1 this season and will play at Lafayette on Wednesday at 6 p.m. Dolan has nine goals this season while also being the team’s primary goalkeeper.