Belleville East gets pitching gem in win over Granite City; Columbia stops Carlyle win streak

When it came to throwing strike one Tuesday, Belleville East junior Evan Lawrence was a strike-throwing machine.

Lawrence was in command all day, tossed a complete-game two-hitter and striking out 10 as Belleville East shut down Granite City 6-1 in a Southwestern Conference baseball win.

“He faced 29 hitters and he was ahead of 25 of them with first-pitch strikes,” Belleville East coach Ryan Wiggs said after the Lancers (8-5) improved to 1-2 in league play. “He did a great job getting ahead of guys and I think that was the difference, really.

“His defense played great behind him too and that helped out.”

Lawrence didn’t need a lot of help, but second baseman Travis Michalke turned in several excellent defensive plays to aid the win.

“To me it seems like every start he’s had he’s gotten better each time, which is exactly what we want,” Wiggs said of Lawrence. “Hopefully that continues.”

Ricky Dambacher and Jalen Jones drove in runs for Belleville East and catcher Trevor Sanchez was 2-for-3 with a double and RBI.

After not scoring in the first, the Lancers scored single runs in the next four innigns and added two in the sixth for insurance.

Latrell Smith and Baily Thompson had the only two hits for Granite City (2-9, 1-2).

Columbia 7, Carlyle 0

Columbia ace Andrew Hoguet (3-1) took a sledgehammer to Carlyle’s 12-0 start this season, tossing a five-hit shutout with six strikeouts and no walks in a Cahokia Conference victory.

Cameron Roth went 2-for-3 with a double and three RBIs for Columbia (7-3, 1-0) and Cameron Touchette remained on fire, going 3-for-3 with a double, triple, an RBI and three runs scored.

Touchette, headed to John A. Logan College in Carterville, is hitting an incredible .706 (12-for-17) with one home run, 13 RBIs and 12 runs scored. His on-base percentage is .750.

Jonathan Holmes, Lamont Read and Brennen von Breusegen also drove in runs for the Eagles.

Ricky Huge and Landon Michael were each 2-for-3 for Carlyle (12-1, 0-1).

Mater Dei 6, Highland 2

Mater Dei moved to 7-0-1 this season by knocking off the Class 3A defending state champs behind the complete-game pitching of Blake Beckmann (4-0).

Brady Rakers led Mater Dei by going 3-for-3 with a double and two RBIs while Jared Niemeyer was 2-for-4 with an RBI. Bekcmann allowed three hits and struck out five.

Freeburg 6, Wesclin 4

Freeburg (10-2, 1-0) broke a 4-4 tie with two runs in the top of the seventh and opened Cahokia Conference play with an emotional win over the Wesclin Warriors (6-3, 0-1).

Freeburg’s Austin Sweet had a big day, going 2-for-3 with two doubles and four RBIs. Freeburg shortstop Ty Dill was 3-for-4 with two RBIs as Joe Wolf, Elias Czech and Jakob Hoffman combined for the pitching win.

This story was originally published April 5, 2016 at 10:14 PM with the headline "Belleville East gets pitching gem in win over Granite City; Columbia stops Carlyle win streak."