No. 9 Edwardsville Hits Their Way Past No. 4 O'Fallon

May 9, 2017

By Drew Locascio
Illinois Scouting Director

No. 9 Edwardsville 9, No. 4 O’Fallon 4

O’FALLON, IL – The matchup between perennial Metro East powers and Southwestern Conference foes was as expected; a tough back-and-forth affair until Edwardsville pulled away from O’Fallon late, for a 9-4 victory.

Edwardsville (21-5) pounded out 14 hits in the victory with half of the hits coming from underclassman. Tiger Freshman Drake Westcott, a Louisville commit, may have had the best day of anyone, going 3-for-4 with a homerun and two RBI. Sophomore catcher, Dalton Wallace and sophomore third baseman Jack Cooper each had two hits and scored a combined three runs for Ewardsville.

With the score tied at four, heading into the top half of the sixth inning, Edwardsville scored five unanswered runs over the final two innings to break the game open. The Tigers scored three times in the sixth and twice in the seventh. In the sixth, four of the first five batters reached base to lead off the inning with senior Kade Burns, a Central Missouri commit and Westcott each delivering run-scoring singles in the frame. In the seventh, the first four batters reached to lead off the inning. Cooper delivered an RBI single in the frame and junior Reid Hendrickson hit a sacrifice fly to center field.

There were a number of lead changes throughout the first five innings with clutch hits being delivered on both sides. Dylan Burris, a Wabash Valley JC commit, was the very first batter of the game and wasted no time getting the scoring started with a no-doubt homerun to right field for Edwardsville.

O’Fallon (24-4) came right back with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning. With two outs Brayden Arnold delivered one of his two doubles on the day, to drive in the second run of the inning for the Panthers.

Edwardsville would tie the game at two with one run in the second inning. Edwardsville would score a run in the top of the fourth and the fifth inning, to take the lead and O’Fallon answered right back each time with one of their own to tie the game back up.

STATISTICAL HIGHLIGHTS

Edwardsville

+ Kade Burns – Started on the mound: 5 IP, 7 K, 2 ER. At the plate went 3-for-4, 2B, 2RBI, R

+ Drake Westcott – 3-for-4, HR, 3 RBI, R

+ Dylan Burris – 1-for-3, HR, RBI, 2 R, 2 BB

+ Dalton Wallace – 2-for-3, 2B, BB

+ Jack Cooper – 2-for-4, RBI, R

+ Andrew Frank – Came in out of the bullpen: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 K, BB

O’Fallon

+ Brayden Arnold – 2-for-3, 2 2B, 2 RBI, R

+ Joe Guithues – 2-for-3, RBI, R

+ Nick Boone – 1-for-3, SB

+ Jordan Richardson – 1-for-3, RBI

For more in-depth notes from the game - and all other games that we cover - visit the Illinois Scout Blog later.