Suburban West Roundup: Mehlville Soccer Winning With Defense

Check out our weekly look at the latest news and notes from the Suburban West Conference:

Mehlville girls soccer ended their hot streak against Jackson Monday, losing 2-1. The Panthers were coming off a 1-0 win against Northwest last Tuesday and won five of their last six contests thanks to strong defense.

The Panthers are 11-10 overall, including 2-5 in the Suburban West. Senior goalkeeper Meggin Werner earned the shutout last week, her fourth this season. The Mehlville defense had not allowed more than one goal in six consecutive games. Werner and fellow goalie junior Claire Steward have been effective with sharing minutes in the net.

Baseball

The wacky world of the Suburban West Conference in baseball this spring was shown last week in four games played by Lindbergh.

The Flyers seemed to play themselves out of the conference race with losses on Tuesday and Wednesday to Northwest, which entered the series with a 1-8 mark.

Ryan Roth had two hits and two runs batted in and pitched two scoreless and hitless innings while striking out four in a 6-3 Lions win on Tuesday. Northwest came from behind the next day, scoring six runs in the final three innings in a 7-5 win.

But Lindbergh righted itself on Thursday and Friday with a two-game sweep of Oakville, which had been in second place in the conference. Both victories were by identical 8-4 scores. Matt Klingler hit a three-run homer, and Will Spitzfaden went the distance on the mound, striking out nine in Thursday's victory.

The Flyers scored four times in the eighth inning on Friday for a dramatic win. Sophomore Jordan Harmon struck out eight in seven innings and got out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the seventh inning to send the game to extra innings. Sean Murphy had three hits, three RBIs and a home run off Tigers ace Chad Gendron to pace the Lindbergh offense.

"That was just an unbelievable at bat," Lindbergh coach Darin Scott said of the Murphy home run.

"Gendron is a bulldog on the mound and a lights-out pitcher, but Sean must have fouled off at least nine pitches after falling behind 1-2 before hitting the home run. Sean is a tough guy to get out, and he has been our most consistent hitter. It was quite a battle. That was a great at bat, but we had a lot of quality at bats against an extremely good pitcher."

Those wins set up the series of the season to be played on Monday and Tuesday as Lindbergh and Parkway South battle for the top spot. The teams play Monday at Lindbergh and Tuesday at Parkway South.

"We control our own destiny," Scott said.

The two games end the conference season for Lindbergh, which has four league losses. Parkway South has lost twice in the league, and still has to make up games against Marquette and Fox.

The Mehlville baseball team enters this week with a 9-15 overall record, including a 2-12 league mark. The Panthers are last in the Suburban West, and were defeated by Fox 13-8 Monday. They hope to get a win in their last home game Tuesday at 4:15 p.m.

In Mehlville’s 16-8 loss to Lafayette last Thursday, sophomore Austin Kretzer hit a home run and went 2-for-3. Kretzer has four homers and 23 runs batted in, second only to senior teammate Mark O'Moran, who has five home runs and 28 RBI.

Track and Field

The boys and girls conference track meets were held last week. Marquette captured the boys championship with 128.3 points and Eureka edged Lafayette for second place. The Wildcats had 112.3 points while Lafayette had 112.

Lindbergh's Tim Hamm-Bey had an outstanding day. He won both the 100 and 400-meter dashes and came in second in the 200-meter dash.

Fox's Zach English and Donnell Walker of Parkway South were also double champions at conference. English won the high jump and long jump while Walker won both the shot put and discus.

Lafayette swept the two hurdle events with Chris Caldwell winning the 110-meter and Chris Orange the 300-meter hurdles.

Parkway South's Lawrence Scott prevented Hamm-Bey from winning three events as he captured the 200-meter dash.

Marquette's championship was fueled by its distance team. Nick Reel won the 800-meter run and Noah Kauppila captured the 3200-meter run. D'Autrail Wafford was the Mustangs' other conference champion, winning the triple jump.

Lindbergh won the girls team title with 178.5 points and Eureka was a strong second with 163.5. Jill Harmon won two events for the Flyers, winning the long jump and triple jump.

Fox's Shawntana Johnson was also a double winner as she was first in both the 100 and 200-meter dashes.

Golf

Parkway South finished in a tie with Poplar Bluff at the Class 4 Sectional 1 Tournament at Westwood Hills, and thus qualifies for the state meet. David Arth finished fourth overall for the Patriots, who also sent co-medalist Kyle Weldon, Jack Darland, Jacob Frericks and Wesley Allard to state.

Eureka's Matt Miklas was co-medalist with Weldon with a two-over par 73. Eureka's Theodore Jones was third overall with a 74.

Lindbergh was able to qualify three golfers to state: Justin Stacer; Jacob Arends; and Drew Ervin. Marquette's Zach Gollwitzer was the other Suburban West golfer from the sectional to qualify (the top 15 golfers from outside the two qualifying teams make it to state).

Mehlville had one golfer competing at Westwood Hills. Justin Komos shot a +15 to place 33rd.

The Class 4 state meet will be held May 16 and 17 at the Twin Oaks Country Club in Springfield.

Patch Suburban West Girls Athlete of The Week

Lindbergh was led by distance runner Colleen Riley at the conference meet, and she has been named the Patch Girls Athlete of the Week. Riley swept the distance events, winning the 800, 1600 and 3200-meter runs.

Patch Suburban West Boys Athlete of The Week

Parkway South golfer Kyle Weldon is the Patch Boys Athlete of the Week as he was the co-medalist at the Class 4 Sectional 1 Tournament at Westwood Hills last week. It was an emotional win for Weldon as it came just days after the death of beloved and longtime Patriots coach Mark Wade.