Home sweet home and some sweet home runs.
Playing as the hosts for the first time since March 25, the Edwardsville Tigers celebrated their return with a three-home run, 13-1 win Tuesday over the Collinsville Kahoks.
Road games, including one at St. Louis’ Busch Stadium and a four-game visit to North Carolina, failed to leave Edwardsville jet lagged as the team cranked out 13 hits in its Southwestern Conference opener.
Pitcher Joe Chiarodo went the distance in the five-inning, short-game win, scattering just two hits and one run while striking out seven as the Tigers upped their record to 9-6.
Edwardsville coach Tim Funkhouser was happy to be playing in familiar surroundings.
“It’s good to get back to Tom Pile Field. We haven’t been here in a game for four weeks,” Funkhouser said. “Good to get back, we’ve had a few good days of practice.”
Catcher Max Waltenberger’s two-run home run off the scoreboard in the bottom of the first inning got Edwardsville rolling.
He, too, was happy to be playing in Edwardsville.
“It’s great to just be back, get our normal routine and get our bearings again,” Waltenberger said. “We’ve been taking good BP, working a ton in practice and just watching the ball fly – watching our hard work pay off again.”
In the bottom of the first, shortstop Lucas Krebs got things going with a one-out single before stealing second base. He scored on a base hit by Chiarodo, who came home on Waltenberger’s blast to left-center field that literally thumped the scoreboard.
With two out, Greyson Rathgeb tripled off the left field fence and scored on a single by Tyler Powell to give Edwardsville a 4-0 lead.
The Kahoks responded in the second when Luke Robinson singled and scored with two out on a base hit by Ben Tillman.
Chiarodo would not allow another base runner over the last three innings.
“Joe showed good tempo on the bump and just had a good overall vibe,” Funkhouser said.
In the second, consecutive singles by Hunter Baugh, Krebs and Chiarodo loaded the bases before Waltenberger drew a walk to force in a run.
Cal Swartz then came on in relief of Kahok starter Lucus Owen and was greeted by a grand slam off the bat of Augie Johnes, whose shot pushed Edwardsville’s lead to 9-1.
“Feeling great. Swing’s starting to come back into form,” Johnes said.
And the Tigers weren’t done.
Rathgeb drew a walk and scored on a two-run blast by Powell, giving Edwardsville an 11-1 lead.
Edwardsville added two more runs in the bottom of the fourth on a single by Nick Chiarodo and a sacrifice fly by Baugh.
Four losses at the National High School Invitational in North Carolina to powerhouse teams would have staggered many programs.
But EHS bounced back, first with a road win over McCracken County, Ky., on April 18 and then again Tuesday with a win over 5-11 Collinsville.
Johnes summed up the team’s feelings on what’s ahead now that the NHSI is over.
“We’ve been doing great picking ourselves up, turning the page and moving on and learning from it,” he said. “It was a great experience, we learned a lot about the team we are and the team we could be.”
Funkhouser said the lessons learned in North Carolina have been evident as witnessed by the performance against Collinsville.
”We’re practicing with a little more intent to get over that hurdle between training and competing and I thought we had a lot of guys really compete well, especially in the pitch-by-pitch process,” he said.
Edwardsville, ranked 10th in the state by Prep Baseball Report, returns to action April 24 when it faces Collinsville again at 4:30 p.m. at SIUE’s Roy E. Lee Field at the Simmons Baseball Complex,
Retired Intelligencer journalist Bill Tucker covered Edwardsville High School sports from 1990 to 1999.
