Arms stockpile a great weapon for Edwardsville baseball; East Alumni Day a success

Before Monday, the Edwardsville Tigers had played 12 baseball games and used 12 pitchers.

That’s the type of ridiculous mound depth at the disposal of longtime Edwardsville coach Tim Funkhouser and veteran pitching coach Mike Waldo, whose 10-2 team has been ranked first in the News-Democrat Large-School Baseball Rankings since the preseason. The Tigers are ranked second in the state in the new PrepBaseballReport.com Power 25 Rankings.

“We’ve had different times where we’ve had a bunch of guys contribute, but we feel confident in all those guys going out and giving us a good chance to win,” said Funkhouser, whose club faces a pair of Southwestern Conference challenges this week in Alton on Tuesday and Belleville West on Thursday. “So far they’ve done that and the pitching has definitely been there for us.

“We’re still learning a lot about our guys. We’ve got some guys showing some good things and other guys that really need to show a lot more consistency.”

Trying to recall a similar year with this deep of pitching, Funkhouser brought up the dominant trio of Nathan Culp, Shaun Seibert and David Scott in the previous decade.

At the top of the 2016 pitching rotation are Oklahoma State recruit Trey Riley (1-0, 0.78 ERA, nine strikeouts in nine innings) and University of Mobile recruit Jake Garella (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 14 strikeouts in 10 1/3 innings).

“Trey Riley’s been really good for us and dominant and Jake Garella has been good in each start and shown some dominance,” Funkhouser said. “Those are our experienced guys and Riley’s made a big jump there.”

One of Riley’s fastballs hit a sizzling 94 mph when the Tigers were playing at a March 24-25 tournament in Georgia, so the interest from professional scouts is on the rise.

“Scouts see that, too,” Funkhouser said. “The thing that scouts will be impressed with is he was consistently 90, 91 and 92 and when he need to get it up there he hit 93 and 94. People were already on him. Once he got that velo(city) that’s when guys need to come out and see him and make their evaluation.

“It will be interesting to see how it plays out.”

Senior Austin Ruesch has also turned some heads and knocked off Chicago power Naperville Central 11-4 on Saturday, outdueling one of the state’s top pitchers in Michigan State recruit Zac Bianucci.

Ruesch also figured in a bizarre play on a windy Saturday that saw his hat blow off after a pitch. Naperville Central’s hitter was up with runners at first and second and his apparent double-play ball found it way into the hat of Ruesch while it was rolling across the infield.

“The ball went in the hat and I think detached equipment is an extra base awarded, so it ended up they had runners at second and third,” said Funkhouser, who couldn’t remember seeing anything like that previously.

Other productive pitchers for the Tigers include Tyler Hosto (1-0, 2.55 ERA), Jordan Yenne (2-0, 0.00 ERA), Andrew Yancik (2-0, 2.17 ERA) and Andrew Frank (1-1, 4.34 ERA). Missouri recruit Mark Smith has thrown only 1/3 of an inning.

All that depth gives Funkhouser a chance to mix and match arms in the early going until getting a better handle on how the depth chart shakes out. In short, he has options for each option.

“I would definitely see all those guys being able to contribute to the conference season whether it’s in relief or spot starts,” he said. “ With the various options that we have, we feel confident each of those guys are going to give us a good chance.”

Belleville East Alumni Day a success

The idea of new coach Ryan Wiggs, the first Belleville East Alumni Day attracted plenty of interest and a large gathering of former players on Saturday.

“It was really awesome,” Wiggs said. “I had no idea what to expect because it’s the first time we’ve one it, but it turned out great. We had around 40 former players and they kept trickling in all day. It was a really cool thing.”

Wiggs said as word got out, more and more former Lancers decided to attend the gathering. Each player was introduced during the doubleheader against Normal and everyone had a chance to be honored on the field.

Several wore old jerseys or hats, while many wore old Lancers baseball jackets or even their East letterman jackets.

Hall of Fame former Lancers coach Larry Patton, the first coach in the history of the program, threw out the ceremonial first pitch to his grandson, current East catcher and Missouri State recruit Drew Millas.

Current Lancer Jordan Yates had the idea for the entire team to shake hands with Patton.

“It was a special moment,” said Wiggs, who is already formulating ideas to make the second annual event even bigger and better. “Everyone that contacted me I put on a list and made a ‘Where are They Now’ thing. As the game went on I kept hearing names that weren’t on the list, so more people showed up that we weren’t expecting. I heard a ton of good stories and saw guys hugging and talking.”’

Wiggs encouraged his players to speak and interact with the former players. He did so as well.

“A lot of guys were there from those 1980s teams and they went to the state tournament three years in a row (1985 to 1987),” Wiggs said. “Listening to those guys talk about the state tournament stories was really cool for me to get to hear that.

“We’re definitely gong to do it again. Now that we’ve had one I’d like to expand it. I’d like to get as far back as we can and try to get guys from every year involved.”

Columbia’s Touchette riding wave of offense

Senior outfielder Cameron Touchette’s return to the Columbia lineup after a five-game disciplinary absence resembled the eruption of an offensive volcano.

Headed to John A. Logan junior college in Carterville, Touchette immediately showed why he is capable of leading the entire area in hitting as he did last spring as a junior.

In his last three games before Monday, Touchette shredded opposing pitching for a .727 average by collecting eight hit and 11 RBIs in his last 11 at-bats. That torrid stretch includes two doubles, a home run and 11 RBIs.

He’s hitting .643 (9-for-14) with 12 RBIs overall, nine runs scored and four stolen bases.

This story was originally published April 4, 2016 at 1:54 PM with the headline "Arms stockpile a great weapon for Edwardsville baseball; East Alumni Day a success."