CBC, Parkway South Poised For Championship Drive

CBC begins the road to repeat as Missouri state champions when the Cadets open up district play on Monday. Meanwhile, Parkway South has similar title aspirations.

The Cadets consider this a brand new team and season, and want to win a new championship instead of repeating.

“The first thing we talked about this season is last season is over,” CBC head coach Mason Horne said. “We didn’t want to add a lot unnecessary pressure and this is a new team with the mindset of winning their own championship instead of defending one.”

CBC is the No. 1 seed in Class 4 District 7, meaning it will only need to win two games to advance to sectionals. The Cadets will count on their two aces, seniors David Schmidt and Brennan Devers, to lead the pitching staff to two victories in two days to advance.

“It all comes down to pitching and the entire staff, but we’ve got two guys that we think that can go out and beat anybody when they’ve got their stuff working,” Horne said.

The duo combined for a 10-0 record on the regular season with Schmidt leading the team with 43 strikeouts and Devers posting a team-low 1.81 earned-run average. Devers also hit a three-run, game-winning home run on Senior Day to beat De Smet 3-2 in the final regular season game for CBC.

“This is the really exciting and fun part of the season,” Horne said. “The thing I like about our team is that they are very resilient and leave everything on the field and I think we got a good shot if they can follow that same approach.”

CBC (17-5, 5-2) finished second in the Metro Catholic Conference behind the undefeated SLUH Junior Billikens. The Cadets will play the winner of DeSmet and Parkway North on Monday at 4:15 at Parkway Central.

Parkway South is coming off another division title in the notoriously tough Suburban West Conference and is the top seed in District 4. The Patriots are built to make an even deeper run in the postseason beyond their exit in sectionals to Oakville last year.

“I don’t think they’ve thought twice about the sectionals game last year,” Parkway South head coach Adam Stahl said. “They are just baseball addicts and they love to play to hard.”

Parkway South (21-4, 12-3) is looking to be back to early season form when the Patriots began the season 18-0. They then hit a rough patch, losing three of four games but finished the season making a strong statement with a 15-5 division-clinching win over Lindbergh.

“We beat one of the best pitchers in our league in the first game of that series,” Stahl said. “It’s tough to keep that undefeated pace when everybody is bringing their best game against you.”

John Calloway (.545 batting average), Danny Holst (.527) and Anthony Duke (.459) each batted over .450 for the Patriots. Michael Patterson was fourth in batting average but did most of his damage on the mound. The junior finished the year 8-0 with a 1.14 ERA. South is ready to take on the burden of being a number one seed.

“We need to make sure we are on top of our game because it’s a new season when you start districts,” Stahl said.

The Patriots will play Union on Friday at 4 p.m. at Lafayette. Parkway South will face a division foe, if it makes it to the district semifinals, and play against either Marquette or Eureka.  Another Suburban West team, Lafayette, is the host and the number two seed in this district.

The Oakville Tigers will look to get back on track as the top seed in District 2, which is hosted by Hillsboro High School. The Tigers will take on the Hawks in the opening round of this tournament on Saturday.

“We expect Hillsboro to be a very tough opponent,” Oakville head coach Rich Sturm said. “I’m sure they feel like they got a point to prove playing on their home field and being the number eight seed.”

Oakville (19-7, 10-6) has stumbled a bit down the stretch, finishing 5-5 over the past 10 games.  Although they have faced tough Suburban West opponents during that stretch, Sturm believes his team can play better. 

“We got to do a better job of limiting the damage when things don’t go perfect and not let a snowflake turn into an avalanche,” Sturm said. “We got to get tougher mentally, and I think we will because of all our returning seniors and their experience.”

Oakville’s ace Chad Gendron will start the game on Saturday.  Gendron has been the workhorse of the Tigers’ pitching staff this season. The senior finished with a 7-1 record and a miniscule 1.02 ERA with 73 strikeouts in 62 innings.

“He’s our ace and our go-to guy and it would be foolish on our part not use him when he’s available,” Sturm said.

Sturm also won’t hesitate to use Gendron to close out or even start another game later in the district tournament depending on his pitch count.

District 3 features Vianney and Lindbergh as the top two teams in the bracket. Vianney (20-8, 4-4) turned it up a notch after an April 28 loss to DeSmet, which was their fifth straight defeat. The Griffins put together a seven-game winning streak before losing to undefeated SLUH, 4-3, in the final game of the regular season.

“We’ve got to learn from this game because now we’re getting down to do or die,” coach Scott Brown said after losing to SLUH. “You can’t be sitting there after the game thinking that we should have done something different, because now you’re going to go home for the summer.”

Vianney will host the district tournament and open up against eight-seed Roosevelt on Saturday at noon. The Griffins hope to use the home field to their advantage and advance to the sectionals for the first time since 2007.

Vianney will lean on the big bat of senior outfielder Ryan Snyder, who leads the team with 33 RBIs. Snyder won the batting title in the Metro Catholic Conference, hitting an impressive .609 with three home runs in league play.

Lindbergh (15-10, 10-6) finished its regular season like a roller coaster, trading off consecutive losses and wins in the second half of the season.

“All you want to be doing is playing at your best at the right time, and if we can put together some good pitching performances and get the bats going then I think we can compete for a district championship,” Lindbergh head coach Darin Scott said.

The Flyers feel like they are mentally tough enough and can utilize their deep pitching rotation to win three games in four days to advance to sectionals. However, there is one aspect of their game that could determine if Lindbergh advances or goes home early.

“We do a good job of getting guys on base and being aggressive on the base paths and moving runners, but we’ve got to hit better with runners in scoring position,” Scott said. “All it takes is one guy to step up and deliver a big two-out hit, and once that happens it can be contagious and light a fire to our team.”

Lindbergh opens the first round against Webster Groves on Saturday at 3 p.m. The Flyers played the Statesmen on Thursday to close out the regular season and won that game, 10-0.

Francis Howell Central enters District 8 as the No. 2 seed and the only local team to knock off top-seeded Francis Howell in the regular season.

“It proves that they are beatable, so we can do it again,” Francis Howell Central head coach Ray Howard said. “We know they are a good team, and we know we have to play our best ball but we want to take one game at a time.”

The Spartans defeated Francis Howell (25-3, 5-1) back on April 16, and ultimately split the Gateway Athletic Conference South division title with a matching 5-1 record. Francis Howell Central finished 19-7 during the regular season to set a new school record for wins.

The Spartans face St. Charles West in the first round of the district tournament on Saturday at noon at Fort Zumwalt West. Howell Central won the first matchup during the regular season, but Howard thinks that will have no effect on this game.

“St. Charles West played us a good game the first time around and anybody in our district is capable of beating anybody,” Howard said. “It’s all about pitching in districts hopefully we can get back on track after losing our last two games to end the regular season.”

The district final is May 19 at 4 p.m. and could potentially pit the two rivals, Howell and Howell Central, against each other for a spot in the sectionals.