Wooden Shoes Headed Back to State

By DUSTIN WHITE

SAUGET -- The Teutopolis High School baseball team is headed back to the Class 2A state tournament for the fifth time in eight years thanks to a 4-3 super-sectional victory over Nashville Monday at GCS Ballpark in Sauget.

In a game heard on KJ Country 102.3 and kjcountry.com and one that also featured a 39-minute rain/lightning delay in the top of the third inning, the Wooden Shoes won despite trailing 3-0 before ever swinging a bat. Nashville’s first two hitters in the top of the first inning reached on a walk and a ground-rule double before scoring on Ryan Brink’s fence-scraping line drive just inside the left field foul pole.

T-town starter Lane Belleville settled in after that, however, retiring 14 of the next 15 hitters he faced and scattering just three more baserunners while his teammates chipped away at Brink, the Hornets’ starter.

The Shoes tallied two scores in the home half of the third on two-out RBI hits from Eric Kremer and Brant Bueker and tied it up in the fourth when Dylan Bloemer reached on an error and eventually came around to score on Cody Jansen’s two-out infield single up the middle.

In the fateful bottom of the sixth, Hornets reliever Brogan Kemp, working his second inning of relief, got two quick outs only to find himself in a bases loaded situation thanks to a hit batsman sandwiched between a pair of errors by Nashville third baseman Cameron Parker. He then uncorked a wild pitch to the backstop that allowed courtesy runner Jackson Goeckner to slide home with the go-ahead score.

With Belleville sitting at 97 pitches (butting up against the IHSA-imposed limit of 105 for any outing), T-town coach Justin Fleener opted to turn to Brock Bueker to close out the top of the seventh.

The scoreless final frame was not without incident as Carson Parker led off with a single back to the mound that caromed off Bueker’s lower body. He then managed to steal second despite an apparent baserunning gaffe only to be thrown out at third when pinch hitter Kelton Harre bunted back to the mound. On yet another sac bunt attempt, Harre managed to advance from first to third despite a very close tag play at the third base bag. The close call didn’t end up mattering, however, as Bueker induced a chopper to shortstop Carson Hartke to end the game.

T-town improved to 29-6 with its 18th consecutive win, while Nashville finishes its year (and its deepest postseason run since 2005) with a 30-7 mark. The Shoes will face Orion at 5 p.m. Friday at Dozer Park in Peoria, the second of two semifinals on the day. The first matches last year’s runner-up, St. Joseph-Ogden, with Palos Heights (Chicago Christian). Winners of those two games will square off Saturday at 5 p.m. for the Class 2A title, while the losers play earlier that afternoon at 3 p.m. for third place.

For Teutopolis and Fleener, it’s a return to Peoria after last reaching the final four in 2015. That resulted in a third place finish, as did the Shoes’ previous trip in 2013. And of course the Shoes were back-to-back state champs in 2010 and 2011 to begin the program’s current run of eight straight years advancing at least as far as the super-sectional level. Fleener, who is in his 17th year at T-town, also took teams to state in 2004 and 2005 and has won 15 regionals and 12 sectionals during his impressive tenure.

Class 2A Sauget Super-Sectional

Nashville                300    000    0    --    3-6-4

Teutopolis              002    101    x    --    4-5-0

WP -- Belleville. LP -- Kemp.

Nashville -- Heggemeier, double; Bauza, double; Brink, 2 singles, home run, 3 RBI; Parker, single

Teutopolis -- Hartke, triple; Jansen, single, 1 RBI; Kremer, double, 1 RBI; Bra. Bueker, 2 singles, 1 RBI