St. Anthony Headed To Class 2A State Baseball Tournament

Effingham St. Anthony will be playing at the Class 2A State Tournament Friday and Saturday.

Effingham St. Anthony Coach Tony Kreke described his team as 'a bunch of gamers who play with grit and toughness.'

The Bulldogs proved that over and over during the season, especially in the regional, sectional and super-sectional run. St. Anthony went 2-4 over the last six games of the regular season. Then the Bulldogs won the Marshall Regional, the Greenville Sectional and the Carbondale Super-Sectional and now sit among only four teams remaining still playing at the Class 2A State Tournament.

"I believe the season, as a whole, has prepared us for the State Tournament run," said Coach Kreke. "We really bolstered our schedule and the guys didn't back down. We have played and beaten some really nice teams.

"The sectional championship game against a great Teutopolis team was an extremely emotional game. We were down 1-0 going into the top of the seventh and came back to take the lead and eventually win the game. I don't know if we come back in that game if it wasn't for the adversity and resiliency we faced all season long with the schedule that we have played."

The Bulldogs finished the regular season with a 25-5-1 record.

"This team is led by a great group of seniors," said Kreke. "Connor Roepke, Max Koenig, Beau Adams, Jordan Jones and Nick Ruholl. These guys have kept the program moving up with their hard work and commitment."

Juniors include Brock Fearday, Brady Hatton, Sam Link, Ryan Schmidt, Will Fearday, Joseph Tegeler, Vincent Vogel and Tim Seiler. Sophomores are Aiden Lauritzen, Henry Brent, Maddux Clark and Drake Brown and freshmen are Alex Mayer and Will Bierman.

Leading the Bulldogs in hitting is Brock Fearday with a .417 average. He has 40 hits that included seven home runs and 11 doubles and leads the team in RBI with 41. Roepke had a .409 average with 36 hits including four home runs and five doubles. He finished with 35 RBI. Hatton is at .378 with 37 hits that include seven home runs and seven doubles. He has 30 RBI. Link hit .333 with 30 hits and 24 RBI while Adams is at .299 with 32 hits and 15 RBI. He knocked out four home runs. 

"Beau is a speed guy and a high on-base guy," said Kreke. "Brock is a gap hitter. He has a high average and is a very mature hitter who doesn't chase. Connor and Brady are also gap hitters. Connor is a clutch hitter and has four home runs and 35 RBI. Brady is really confident and has a lot of power with seven home runs and 30 RBI. Aiden Lauritzen, a sophomore, has a big time upside. He has a very good approach at the plate and is a high on-base guy. He hits .278 with 22 hits and nine RBI.

"We've had many guys step up this year with some big hits. Our biggest base stealers include Ryan Schmidt with 13 out of 13, Beau Adams with 10 of 13 and Henry Brent with nine."

Pitchers for the Bulldogs include B. Fearday, Lauritzen and Joseph Tegeler.

"Brock has an 8-1 record," said Coach Kreke. "He went 68 innings and has an  ERA of 1.75 and a WHIP of 1.17. Aiden threw 52.2 innings and went 7-0 on the season. He has a 1.19 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP. Joseph went 29.1 innings and has a 4-2 record. He has a 1.9 ERA and a 1.2 WHIP.

Coach Kreke talked about his offensive and defensive strengths.

"Our offensive game plan is to get 90 feet anyway, anyhow. We take quality at-bats and we don't worry about batting average. Our baseball philosophy is pitching-pitching, routine defense and timely hitting. I say pitching twice because it's that important. We need guys to throw strikes for our defense to make plays and to keep us in games to get the timely hits. I would say our strengths are the defense and pitching. We feed off each other and our offense can really score in a variety of ways."

In his sixth year as head of the Bulldogs, Coach Kreke and his teams have won the National Trail Conference championship in 2018, 2022 and 2023. Kreke graduated from Teutopolis and was on the team that finished third at State in 2005. He earned a scholarship to Lincoln Land Community College and played under Ron Riggle.

"We have a group in school that is called "iron sharpens iron" that many of the baseball players are a part of," said Kreke. "That group is a Bible study group that looks to challenge young men to seek greatness, to be virtuous and to prepare them to fight for Christ. Because in today's society we need men to step up to be great fathers and husbands and that's what the group is trying to prepare these young men for.

"Our program has a goal of achieving a 3.25 GPA as a team from all the players in the program. This team has achieved that in all four quarters with an average of 3.25. Brock Fearday was the NTC All-Conference Player of the Year this past season. He, Connor, Beau, Aiden and Brady were also chosen as All-Conference players.

Assistant coaches include Blake Malatestinic and Clint Lustig along with Mark Young and Whitney Miller. Managers are Rogan Allen, Xander Beals and Drake Brown.

The Bulldogs will square off against Wilmington at 7 p.m. Friday. The first game features Maroa-Forsyth (26-4) against Sterling Newman Central Catholic (25-4-1) at 4 p.m. The winners advance to the championship game Saturday at 7 p.m. while the losers will play for third at 4 p.m.

Wilmington comes into the meeting with a 27-1 record. The Wildcats are led in hitting by Zach Ohlund with a .424 average. He has hit nine home runs and 10 doubles with a total of 39 hits and scored 28 runs. He has 46 RBI. Lucas Rink is at .390 with 10 doubles and 25 RBI. Shawn James hits .375 while Ryan Kettman is at .371, Cade McCubbin .325 and Reid Juster .325.

Kyle Farrell went 9-0 on the mound throwing 58 innings with an ERA of 1.21. Ryan Kettman is 4-0 with a 0.32 ERA in 22 innings.

"We rely on our team goals and a few of them are chase consistency each day, hold yourself and each teammate accountable each day, become the best team that we can be and become the best baseball player you can be for the sake of the team. These are a few among a few others," said Coach Kreke.

"Our 2024 team motto is "Quiet Confidence". Our guys just like showing up and putting in the work and letting it show on the field."

This is the seventh time St. Anthony has sent a baseball team to the State Tournament, taking a State championship in 2012 in Class 1A under Coach Kenny Miller, a third place in 1992 under Craig Carr and a fourth place in 1991 under Coach Dave Bartlett.