COLUMBIA: Saints rise in final act
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| David Briesacher scores under the glove of Columbia catcher Drew Haven in the doubleheader between the two teams July 13. Mark Feldmann photo |
It was like when you wake from a nightmare to a beautiful morning free of clouds, the smell of bacon in the air, dudes clapping you on the back, that sort of thing.
Smith atoned for a late fielding error with the decisive base hit in Columbia's 5-4 victory July 13 over Valmeyer."It felt really good after that," Smith said. "I felt like I had let the team down."
Valmeyer's Jeremiah Bergheger led off the game with a double to center field. On a full count, erstwhile hurler Dave Briesacher, hitting and playing first for the Lakers, took Columbia pitcher Alex Kollack's offering to left. Bergheger held at third, but following a strikeout by Scott Sittel, raced home on a passed ball for the game's opening run. Briesacher, who had stolen second, replaced his teammate at the corner, but was gunned down at home as Columbia first baseman Jeff Schwierjohn fired to the plate. Catcher Andrew Haven applied the swipe tag and Kollack got the third out to hold the visitors to their one-run lead.
"It's different," Briesacher said. "It's a transition. It's every pitcher's dream to want to hit and it's every hitter's dream to want to pitch, so you kind of keep that focus in mind. Whenever we practice everyone gets to hit, so it wasn't like I hadn't swung a bat in six years. I stuck with it and worked hard and it has paid off. Everyone on this team has worked hard."
Valmeyer High alum Scott Rohlfing drew a one-out walk to get the Lakers started in the second. Third baseman Andrew Fannon followed with a single on the infield and Fraser mishandled a fly ball by Dustin Esker in center to load the bases. Bergheger dinked another infield single, plating Rohlfing. Briesacher's grounder to third forced Fannon at the dish, but Sittel, who played all nine innings in the League's All-Star Game three days later, doinked a bloop single to left, scoring Esker and Bergheger to give Valmeyer a 4-0 advantage.
"This is only Scott's second year with us and he has had a great season offensively," Valmeyer skipper Dennis Pieper said. "He was playing second base, but we moved him to short and he is doing a good job there. He is hitting .565, so he deserves to be there, no doubt."
The Saints stayed in the picture largely due to the defensive efforts of infielders Schwierjohn and Eric Hosler and the determined pitching of All-Star Alex Kollack, who would pitch a perfect 1-2-3 seventh inning in Wednesday's midsummer classic.
"That diving play was typical for him," Kollack said. "The defense played well. Nobody really hit the ball hard today."
"Alex keeps us close every week," Smith said. "It's the least we could do to get him the win. He has pitched a lot of great games for us this year."
"He is such a good pitcher," Fraser said. "Losing Jake (Morgan) was tough, but Alex has come through to be our No. 1. He has come through all year and definitely deserved to be in the All-Star Game."
The Lakers maintained their four-run bulge until the home half of the fourth. Hosler led off with a walk and took second on Ryan Bridgewater's single to left. Schwierjohn walked to load the bases and Smith walked with the sacks stuffed to drive in Hosler. Valmeyer starter Cody Litteken induced a 6-4-3 doubly play turned sweetly by Sittel and Bergheger and finished by Briesacher to end the inning and keep the Saints at bay.
The home side nudged within a run its next time at bat. Haven got the Saints going with an infield single. Tyler Kleinschmidt singled to left and a wild pitch moved both runners up a station. A second wild pitch allowed Haven to score and Fraser atoned for his earlier mistake with a stand-up double to center to plate Kleinschmidt and cut Valmeyer's lead to 4-3.
Fraser, enjoying a well-deserved plus-size hoagie after the game, reflected on his adventures.
"About 30 minutes after that I was kicking myself in the butt," Fraser said. "I saw a place to drive it and put a good swing on it. After that I just kept thinking positively and trying to make things happen. It worked out."
The Lakers dragged one back in the top of the sixth. Bergheger nocked a two-out single to left and took second on Smith's fielding error, then cruised home on Briesacher's RBI-single with a full count.
"I don't even really think when I'm up there," Briesacher said. "I just see it and hit. I believe in keeping it as simple as you possibly can, whether you are pitching or hitting. This game isn't as hard as it seems. You want to know what you are going to do, but you don't want to complicate it to the point where you confuse yourself."
"The wind was blowing weird and there were a couple of balls that kept carrying," Kollack said. "It was hard to see in a blue sky like this sometimes."
Down two, Kleinschmidt got the Saints started in the bottom of the seventh and final inning, singling on the infield. Fraser ripped another double, this time to right field, and Kleinschmidt motored for third. Hosler hit a roller to short that Sittel fielded and fired a one-hopper to first. The umpire called the runner safe, loading the bases. Pinch hitter Ben Thoma hit a sacrifice fly to left that scored Kleinschmidt and Fraser hustled to third. Bridgewater hit an RBI-single to center, plating Fraser with the tying run and putting Hosler on third. After Schwierjohn was intentionally walked, Smith came up and slapped his redemptive base knock to drive Hosler home with the game-winner.
"I wanted to keep the ball in front of me and I let happen the last thing I wanted to happen," Smith said. "I was in between diving and I knew I couldn't let him get on second base and I did. It's nice to atone for that."
"It was tough because there were a lot of chink hits here and there," Kollack said. "We battled through it and the hitting came late. You just have to keep throwing.
"They could have gone down early and it could have gotten out of hand. But it didn't. We could have dropped our heads and quit, but we didn't. We kept battling. It was good."
"It was tough, no doubt, losing a game in the bottom of the seventh when you are up" Pieper said. "We had a couple of misplays and set up the situation for the tie. We were hoping to stop them and go into extra innings, but we didn't do it."
The game gave the fans a chance to see Briesacher at play, a rarer sight this season than in some recent times due to the Gibault grad's spate of arm problems.
"I think the majority of it is that you only have so many bullets in your arm," Briesacher said. "My elbow was bothering me in the beginning, then the back of my shoulder, and that went away, but by that point I had started playing in the field and I have stuck with that ever since.
"We have plenty if pitching otherwise, so there's no reason to put me in there. I have started a couple of games and come on in relief and felt all right, but for the most part we have all these other pitchers so there is no reason for me to get in there."
Both teams got a well-earned midweek rest for the All-Star Game before trips north. The Lakers are at Edwardsville this weekend while Columbia heads to Alton.
"It was always close," Pieper said. "Particularly in that inning (name it) when we had men on and didn't score. We had a couple of guys in scoring position, had a man at second base with nobody out and didn't move him along. That was a situation where we could have picked up a run and we didn't do it. That hurt. It looked like it was going to be tight and we couldn't slow them down."
"We have had a couple of weeks off," Smith said. "We didn't play in the Valmeyer Tournament, so it was nice to shake this first one off and get the win."
