Collinsville picks up a big SWC baseball road win over O’Fallon

Watch the scores in the Southwestern Conference baseball world long enough and every once in a while a game will surface that grabs everyone’s attention.

It happened again Thursday as Collinsville High senior Matthew Cook shut down O’Fallon on three hits and struck out nine in a 4-2 Kahoks’ victory at Blazier Field.

O’Fallon, third in the News-Democrat Large-School rankings, entered the game with an 8-1 record and was coming off a 5-0 league win over Alton two days earlier. Collinsville (4-5 overall, 1-1 in the SWC) had been consistently inconsistent through its first eight games.

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This time the Kahoks did nearly everything right to beat the Panthers with strong pitching, timely hitting and exceptional defense.

“I got ahead (in the count) early and that’s what I’ve been struggling with,” said Cook, a hard-throwing senior who walked two and allowed only one hit over the final five innings. “I had trust in my catcher and we were able to get the two-seamer working really well late and the breaking ball was there (all day).

“I know for sure they’re tough hitters. I faced them last year and they got the best of me, so I was back for revenge. I just knew I had to hit my spots in order to win.”

Key performers

Kahoks coach Pete Trapp was unsure what to expect from Cook or his team on Thursday, but was exceptionally pleased with the final result.

“He did a great job,” Trapp said of Cook. “We played good defense, (Sam) Vlasak called a great game. I’m very proud of the way he threw the ball and the way the guys played overall. They competed, I love it.

“I’m not surprised, but I’m glad that he finally got going with what he’s capable of doing because I think he’s got some pretty good talent. It was good for us and for him to see him go out and do what he did today.”

Collinsville’s Jordan Reichert had a double and single and scored twice, also running down several hard-hit balls in the gap from his center field spot. One was in the sixth inning to rob Camden Bauer of a hit.

Kahoks shortstop Hayden Juenger delivered a two-run single in the fourth and Vlasak drove in an important insurance run in the sixth with a two-out single. Collinsville’s Bailey Reed reached base three times and scored twice, collecting a pair of hits.

“This conference is a bear,” Trapp said. “Every Tuesday and Thursday you could go to any one of these venues and you’re going to see a good high school baseball game. You can’t take an inning or a pitch off.”

Key sequence

O’Fallon took a 1-0 lead in the first, but the Kahoks tied it in second when Reichert doubled, stole third and scored on a wild pitch.

Juenger’s two-run single in the fourth off O’Fallon starter Max Schaefer (2-1) made it 3-1, but the Panthers got a run back in the fourth when Bradley Harrison scored on a wild pitch.

Harrison reached on a leadoff double in the sixth, but Cook retired the final six hitters in order to close out the win.

“He was ahead in the count and he was low in the zone,” O’Fallon coach Jason Portz said. “He’s got good velocity and he’s got good movement, he was able to mix his breaking ball in. We were not very good with two strikes today and that’s the key to the game offensively for us.

“When we did get some good swings they certainly made some nice plays today. They did everything they had to do to win the game, credit them.”

Portz pointed to O’Fallon’s three errors, five walks and an inability to generate key hits as big factors in the defeat.

“We didn’t do anything to put ourselves in position to win the game,” he said. “We didn’t battle at the plate, didn’t make plays defensively with any consistency and when that happens in the Southwestern Conference you’re not going to win.”

This story was originally published March 31, 2016 at 8:45 PM with the headline "Collinsville picks up a big SWC baseball road win over O’Fallon."