Edwardsville survives extra innings with Belleville West, escapes with win

Looking for an offensive spark Thursday, the Edwardsville Tigers found it in the bottom of their lineup.

Cole Cimarolli and Andrew Yancik combined for five hits and five runs as Edwardsville broke open a 3-3 tie with four runs in the top of the eighth to hand Belleville West a 7-3 loss and its first Southwestern Conference baseball defeat.

Cimarolli’s RBI double in the second put the Tigers (11-3 overall, 3-1 in the SWC) on top and his single helped lead to two more runs in the fourth.

“It’s definitely helpful to have some speed behind you,” said Cimarolli, a Quincy University recruit who was 3-for-3 with a double and RBI and two runs scored. “You can turn a bad ground ball into a single or just do what you can to get on base. It’s very helpful. We try to be very aggressive.”

Key sequence

After Belleville West (9-4, 3-1) tied it 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh on a two-strike, two-out, two-run single by Cal Kossina, the Tigers bounced back quickly.

Yancik singled and stole second, scoring the go-ahead run on Cimarolli’s infield single that caused a bouncing throw to first base. Edwardsville senior Jake Garella followed with a two-run homer to left and Trey Riley nearly left the yard as well, crushing a triple off the right field fence.

“It’s a great feeling to know that I can get on base and do what I can, then see the guys behind me just finish it up,” said Cimarolli, whose team was coming off a 4-1 league loss to Alton on Tuesday. “It was very demoralizing. It was just hard to see that happen, Jake (Garella) pitched a great game.

“It was a bad feeling and we had a bad taste in our mouth. We came back today and won.”

After Edwardsville starter Trey Riley left in the rainy second inning battling control issues, left-hander Tyler Hosto tossed four scoreless innings of relief.

“It was a cold day, it would have been nice to get him out here on a warm day and let it fly and go for a while,” Edwardsville coach Tim Funkhouser said when asked about removing Riley ,who had been scratched from his previous start, so early. “I thought the first inning he looked really good and sharp, the second inning he got a little high and a little excited. We’ll save his bullets for another day.

“I thought Tyler Hosto was outstanding — and I know Trey’s going to be ready the next time out and keep building from there.”

Key players

Hosto was in position for the win, but Yancik came on in relief in the seventh and walked the first two batters. Yancik nearly escaped the jam, but Kossina stroked a two-run single to right to send the game into extra innings.

“That’s what he does,” Belleville West coach Todd Baltz said of Kossina, a Southwestern Illinois College recruit hitting .548 with 12 RBIs. “He’s certainly our go-to guy in a lot of situations and he just seems to come through in those spots. I think we proved today we can play with anybody and that’s what we told our guys.

“That’s a pretty good team over there and you went toe-to-toe with them. We put some pressure on them as well.”

Yancik (3-0) tossed a scoreless eighth to notch the win.

A bunt figured prominently in Edwardsville’s two-run fourth that broke a 1-1 tie.

Edwardsville’s Dylan Burris beat out a bunt and Yancik came around to score on the play. A double-steal by Burris and Cimarolli led to another run.

“Some of our bunts we didn’t really get (them) where we wanted to as much, but we did enough to cause problems,” said Funkhouser, who credited some extra indoor bunting practice Wednesday. “They didn’t make the plays today, but it was good to come up with a victory because we didn’t play our best baseball and we were still able to overcome that.”

West starter Tai Kezirian allowed three runs in four innings, then Kossina relieved and held the Tigers scoreless until the eighth.

Funkhouser was glad to see some big shots from his No. 4 and 5 hitters Garella and Riley in the eighth. Garella has the Tigers’ hottest bat, hitting .534 with three homers and 16 RBIs.

“They got pitches to hit and they did something with them,” Funkhouser said. “It was good to see those guys come through.”

This story was originally published April 7, 2016 at 9:16 PM with the headline "Edwardsville survives extra innings with Belleville West, escapes with win."