Suburban West Roundup: Oakville Baseball Hits Late Slump

Our weekly look at the latest news and notes from the Suburban West Conference:

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 over Oakville. 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 Oakville 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.

Oakville lost to Eureka on Tuesday night, 15-5, and have dropped four of its past six games. The Tigers are 18-7 this season, and 10-6 in the Suburban West, which has already been clinched by Parkway South. Oakville will play at Rockwood Summit on Thursday at 4:15 p.m.

Senior third baseman Tim Chambliss has paced the Oakville offense with a .410 batting average with eight doubles and 26 runs batted in.

Volleyball

The Oakville boys volleyball team is 27-0 heading into its final regular-season match on Wednesday at Affton at 5 p.m. The Tigers defeated St. Mary’s on Tuesday night by a score of 25-22, 25-15. Affton is 21-5, so it should be a challenging match.

Oakville has swept 23 of its 27 matches, losing just five total games this season. The Tigers will kick off its postseason on Saturday at Lindbergh. Oakville has made the state semifinals for three consecutive years.

Track and Field

The boys and girls conference track meets were held on Saturday. Marquette captured the boys championship with 128.3 points. 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.

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.

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 and Noah Kauppila captured the 3,200. D'Autrail Wafford was the Mustangs' other conference champion. He won the triple jump.

Tyler Holmes of Fox won the 1,600. Dylan McDermott gave Northwest a conference champion as he won the pole vault.

Lindbergh won the girls team title with 178.5 points. 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.

Eureka had four individual champions. Megan Cidlik won the discus, Laura King won the 100-meter hurdles, Alyssa Rebecca won the 400 and Paige Biles won the 300-hurdles.

Jennifer Sturgeon made it a clean sweep of the pole vault for Northwest as she won the girls event. Lafayette's Mackenzi Schweitz won the high jump and Parkway South's Jyra Griffin won the shot put.

Golf

Parkway South finished in a tie with Poplar Bluff at the Class 4 Sectional 1 Tournament at Westwood Hills in Poplar Bluff last Friday, and thus qualifies for the state meet. David Arth finished fourth overall for the Patriots, who also send 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).

The Oakville golf team finished fifth as a team at Westwood Hills. The Tigers had a team score of 346, 28 shots behind Poplar Bluff and Parkway South.

Ryan Hancock had Oakville’s top score at 84, which placed him 25th overall and just two shots from qualifying for the state meet. Cam Crouthers shot an 85 while Ryan Smelcer shot an 86.

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, 1,600 and 3,200.

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.