Jackson leads Metro East Bears to first round win at District 22 playoffs
One of the cornerstones of the Edwardsville High School baseball team this spring, Aaron Jackson continued to show no signs of letting up on Tuesday as a member of the Metro East Bears in the opening round of the District 22 American Senior Legion playoffs.
Jackson allowed one unearned run in a complete game effort while Jordan Hovey and Conner Melton drove in two runs each as the the Bears opened the postseason with a 10-1 win over Highland at Gordon Moore Park.
The Bears broke a 1-all tie with a pair of runs in the second inning off Highland and Jackson did the rest as he held Highland to just three hits over the final seven innings to pick up the win.
Jackson, who pitched a couple of innings on Sunday, got a call from Bears manager Ken Schaake on Tuesday asking if he could pitch. The answer unfortunately for Highland was a yes.
“I told him (Schaake) I could go. I threw I think two innings on Sunday and I felt good. I wanted to pitch. The most fun I have is when I pitch,’’ Jackson said. “ I felt good and had command of all my pitches. I just threw strikes and I have a great defense behind me so everything worked out. The defense made some great plays out there for me tonight.’’
Hovey and Melton keyed the Bears offense, which banged out 10 hits and scored in five of eight innings. But the real story on this night was the poor defense played by Highland, which made seven errors and helped the Bears tally seven of their 10 runs. Highland starter Jordan Smith allowed seven runs in just over five innings of work.
“You’ve got to be able to do that. When teams make mistakes you have to be able to capitalize on those mistakes. We did that a few times tonight but there were a couple of others when we left runners in scoring position,’’ Schaake said. “Aaron (Jackson) did a great job out there tonight. He got ahead of the hitters and we played pretty good defense behind him.’’
The top-seeded Bears (19-6) will host the winner of the other first round game played Tuesday between Belleville and Fairview Heights at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Hopkins Field on the grounds of Gordon Moore Park. Highland will take on the loser of the Belleville-Fairview Heights game, also on Wednesday.
Highland (5-6) was its own worst enemy in the early going on Tuesday with four errors in the first two innings.
Drake Hampton led off the bottom of the first inning with a single, stole second base and went to third on a throwing error and scored on Hovey’s first run scoring single of the night.
A two-out error scored Blaine Ray in the top of the second inning as fourth-seeded Highland drew even at 1. But the Bears, with the aid of two more Highland errors, took the lead for good in the bottom of the inning.
With one out, Caleb Buhs tripled into the right-center field gap and scored when Melton singled sharply up the middle. Melton then scored seconds later on Highland’s third error in two innings.
Staked to a two-run lead, Jackson went on cruise control, allowing two hits over the next five innings and completely shutting down the Highland offense.
The Bears got a couple more gifts from Highland in the fourth when Jordan Smith hit a pair of batters and walked a third to load the bases with nobody out.
Melton, Hampton and Jordan Hovey drove in runs as the Bears lead grew to 6-1.
“We just played ugly baseball tonight. That’s all you can say about it,’’ Highland coach Harry Painter said. “I’m hoping we got it all out of our system tonight because we can play with those two teams (Belleville or Fairview Heights.’’
Contact reporter Dean Criddle at dcriddle@bnd.com or 618-239-2661.
This story was originally published July 14, 2015 at 10:46 PM with the headline "Jackson leads Metro East Bears to first round win at District 22 playoffs."