BY JOHN HOUGH
WEEKLY REPORTER

Braden Arnold scored his third win of the season against Chaminade on Saturday. (O’Fallon Weekly Photo by Becca Jones-Scales)

O’FALLON – It was a perfect week of baseball at Blazier Field.

The O’Fallon Panthers defeated previously unbeaten Alton 5-4 and took care of Collinsville 12-2 to go 2-0 in the Southwestern Conference. On Saturday they took down Harlem 11-1 in five innings and then dispatched Chaminade 5-1. The Panthers are now 11-1 riding a nine-game winning streak, which is music to head coach Jason Portz’s ears.

“We put our focus into our conference games,” Portz said. “[Alton] was undefeated coming into our place, and this time last year Collinsville beat us early in the season. We were ready to perform.”

Despite having one of the best records in the entire metro area, Portz isn’t emphasizing it just yet.

“[We] don’t worry too much about our record if we’re sitting at 6-6 or 11-1. Right now we’re playing clean, fast baseball and we’re together. That’s what we’re trying to do at this juncture in the season.”

The pitching staff has carried O’Fallon for the most part so far and was splendid again last week. Hayden Juenger went 5.1 innings against Alton giving up eight hits, four runs, two of them earned. He struck out seven batters to record his first win of the season after receiving no-decisions in his first two starts. Logan Boente continued his fine early season form as he went the distance, albeit five innings against Collinsville allowing two runs and five hits. His record stands at 4-0, and his ERA is a microscopic 0.84.

Jordan Richardson hits a dinger against Harlem on Saturday. (O’Fallon Weekly Photo by Becca Jones-Scales)

Brayden Arnold, a Collinsville transfer has been a welcome addition to the Panthers in 2017. The junior threw a combined five innings and two appearances and notched his third win of the season against Chaminade. He allowed one run and three hits against the Red Devils to improve his record to 3-0.

“This is his first year here working through our system,” Portz said. “Coach Seibert is trying to get him to stand a little bit taller and get some more downhill tilt to his ball. [He’s] giving us a good effort every time he comes out.”

The Panthers resume conference play on Tuesday at 4:30 pm against East St. Louis at home and then travel to take on Belleville East at 4:30 pm on Thursday. The following two days see O’Fallon play two non-conference games. The first matchup is Friday afternoon against Civic Memorial at Blazier Field, and the next game will be at a somewhat bigger venue. O’Fallon will meet up with the Hillsboro Hawks at Busch Stadium on Saturday at 5:00 pm.

“I’m real happy with how our guys performed this week, it’s a good start to our conference season,” Portz said. “We hope to carry it into next week with a big game against Belleville East and a really good and talented [Civic Memorial] team who’s going to challenge us quite a bit. We’re definitely excited about that.”

Logan Boente

O’Fallon Boys Varsity Baseball player Logan Boente recently helped boost his team to an incredible win. The team recently traveled to Emerson, Georgia to compete in the Perfect Game- Rawlings Select Classic Tournament where they emerged the champions. Boente’s pitching against Savannah Christian in the semifinal round was one of the key factors in getting to the championship round.

Head Coach Jason Portz spoke about the junior right handed pitcher, saying “Logan had an outstanding week last week earning the win on Saturday versus a 17-1 Savannah Georgia team.” Portz also said that Boente threw for 7 innings, had 0 runs, 3 hits, 1 walk, 6 strikeouts and “topped out at 84 miles per hour with exceptional movement and command of 3 pitches.” The Panthers won the game 1-0.

Boente, who’s in his third season as a Varsity Baseball Panther, has been playing since he was 5 or 6 years old. “Pretty much my whole life,” Boente said. He also mentioned that he’s essentially had the same teammates this whole time, lending to a strong bond.

“It’s awesome to have a bunch of friends that I’ve played ball with my whole life. The bond is so strong between us, and it actually makes it a lot more fun and really easy to play with them,” he said.

Asked about his great game versus Savannah Christian, Boente was humble and answered “The defense behind me backed me up. I was really comfortable throwing strikes and letting those kids make contact because I knew the rest of the team would put up a great defense for me.”

“Logan is the consummate team guy, He comes to practice every day and puts in the time it takes to get better. He is very unselfish in that he doesn’t mind if he is a starter or a relief guy and will fill whatever role is needed to help the team win. We like to use him in a role that will best benefit our team. Logan is battle tested over his 2 years of varsity experience and is 11-1 over his career as a varsity starter. There are few scenarios that he comes into that he hasn’t been in before,” said Portz.

Boente, the son of Faye and Steve Boente, said that he’s looking forward to what the rest of the season holds. “I’m definitely excited. Our pitching staff is pretty deep, and we’ve got a lot of great hitters. The returning seniors are great leaders for our team, and it just seems like we’ve all got a great chemistry. Everybody just fits in,” he said.

Boente also pitched five innings and took the win in the team’s March 30th 12-2 win against Collinsville.

BY RICH HULL
O'FALLON WEEKLY SPORTS

Head Coach Jason Portz gives some instructions to his hitters and baserunners during a timeout against Belleville West.
(O’Fallon Weekly Photo by Rich Hull)

“Shell-shocked” is how Panthers’ varsity Head Coach Jason Portz described Saturday’s Class 4A Sectional Championship game against Plainfield South. “We hadn’t played a bad inning all season; and, one bad inning today cost us our season” He continued.

Things looked bright for O’Fallon early on in the game. Dillon Weiss doubled and then scored on Brad Snyder’s RBI single in the first inning. The second inning saw Hayden Schaefer hit a laser over straight-away center field for a solo home run. His second in as many games.

The lead was short lived. The Cougars tied it at two each in the bottom of the second; and, went up by two, 4 – 2 in the bottom of the fourth.

Then the top of the fifth came for the Panthers. Jason Gibson doubled and Weiss singled to move him to third. Jared Dalonzo had a SAC fly to bring Gibson in to make it 4 – 3. Cougars’ pitcher, Konnor Ash then walked both Snyder and Harrison to load the bases and his day was done.

“We thought that we had them right where we wanted them” Portz said. “We forced their best pitcher out of the game and they were bringing in a guy who had just thrown over 100 pitches on a day’s rest. So, we felt really confident.”

Plainfield South’s reliever got Jordan Richardson to hit into a fielder’s choice to shut down the Panthers’ rally. That would be O’Fallon’s last at bat for the game.

Starting pitcher Max Schaefer did a great job keeping the Panthers’ in the game. He went four innings before turning the ball over to Logan Boente and Brad Snyder in the fifth inning. The one bad inning that Portz referred to earlier. The Cougars scored nine runs in the inning, ending the game by the 10-run rule.

“Baseball can be a game of inches at times” Portz said. “Sometimes the ball gets caught and sometimes it lands just in front of you and you can’t get to it.”

“I’m definitely disappointed” said senior Brad Harrison. “No one wanted our season to end this way. But, I couldn’t be prouder of the team and their preparation.”

“This was definitely an unfortunate way for our seniors to go out” Portz said. “We had great energy and good at bats…..I couldn’t be prouder of this team and the way that they played all season long.”

The season ended with the Panthers winning 33 games. The second most in the program’s history. They also entered the championship game as the #18 team in the country in the USA Today’s Super 25 Poll. That is a first for the program to be recognized at the National level.

Coach Portz described this season as “Passionate”. “The kids loved to win and play for each other. But most of all, they loved to play the game and they put their hearts into it every time they stepped on the field.”

The Panthers earned the right to play in the championship game by defeating a Belleville West team that wouldn’t go away. It took nine innings before O’Fallon won 6 – 5.

Hayden Schaefer launches a two-run homer against the Maroons in the Sectional Semifinals (O’Fallon Weekly Photo by Rich Hull)

O’Fallon spotted the Maroons three runs in the first inning before Hayden Schaefer laced a two-run shot over the fence in center field. O’Fallon tied the game at three on an RBI double by Harrison in the third. Belleville West scored one in their half of the third to go back up by a run 4 – 3.

Snyder hit a two-run double in top of the fourth to give the Panthers’ their first lead of the game,  5 – 4. It was a lead that they would hold until the bottom of the seventh as Harrison held the Maroons to just two hits and off the bases from the second inning to the sixth.

It was the Maroons’ bottom of the lineup that tied the game and send it to extra innings. A single followed by a SAC bunt to move the runner to second followed by another single brought the tying run across the plate.

Snyder, who went 4 – 5 with two doubles and two RBI, lead off the ninth inning with a double deep to left center. He was replaced by pinch runner, Caleb Shelton. Harrison was intentionally walked…again to put runners at first and second. Jordan Richardson came to the plate and laid down a perfect bunt, scoring Shelton all the way from second, with what would be the winning run.

Harrison pitched into the eighth inning, getting the first two outs before Logan Boente came in to close the door and pick up the win.