American National Falls to Mac N Seitz, Continues Play in Prestigious Invitational

BELLEVILLE, IL—The American National Eagles took a break from their already hectic St. Louis Amateur Baseball Association (SLABA) schedule on Thursday afternoon, and traveled to Southwestern Illinois College to play four games this weekend in the Billiken Blue Invitational.

The event is an elite summer baseball showcase, featuring some of the best club baseball teams from around the country.

American National’s opponent on Thursday was the Mac N Seitz Indians, a high-quality summer team from the Kansas City area. The team features several players that are being recruited by many of the top Midwestern collegiate baseball programs.

Mac N Seitz showed just how tough a team it could be as it rallied from an early-deficit, then pieced together a critical two-out rally late in the game to pull out a 4-3 win over the Eagles.

“That’s a good team we were going against today,” said American National head coach Bill Becher. “They travel all over and play in some of the best tournaments in the country. So I don’t have any problem with how we played today.”

The Eagles played just as well as Mac N Seitz did, especially on the mound where recent Lindenwood University signee Zach Speckhals struck out seven and only walked one in five innings work against the Indians. Speckhals also gave up seven hits and hit two batters.

Unfortunately, two of those hits were two-out, RBI singles off the bat of Mac N Seitz right fielder Marcus McNeace, a junior-to-be at Shawnee Mission West High in Kansas. He is considered to be one of the best hitters in the Kansas City-area 2013 graduating class.

McNeace’s first hit was a smash into the right-field gap in the third inning that gave Mac & Seitz its first lead at 3-2.

His second hit was a line-drive into the left-field gap that drove in what proved to be the game-winning run in the bottom of the fifth.

“I thought Zach pitched really good,” Becher said. “He was moving the ball all around."

Becher also said Speckhals really only had the one tough inning, and added that McNeace hit a good pitch for the game-winner.

"It was a tough break, but I’m not upset with anything Zach did," Becher said. "He’s going to be a good pitcher for us.”

The one tough inning for Speckhals was the third when he walked a batter, hit a batter, and gave up three straight singles, which allowed Mac N Seitz to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead.

American National got that first lead in the top of the second, when West outfielders Shane Olmstead and Joe McCune each reached base against Mac N Seitz starter Connor Brady.

Olmstead led off with a single and McCune walked with one out, then both advanced one base on a Brady wild pitch.

That brought up second baseman Michael Eagan, who drilled a single up the middle that scored Olmstead and McCune, to make it 2-0 Eagles.

Eagan also played a key role in American National’s rally. He led off the top of the fifth with a double over McNeace’s head, and then advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt from designated hitter Michael Pride.

Then, with the defense playing in to try to keep him from scoring, Eagan broke for home on a suicide squeeze play, which worked to perfection when teammate Conner Buenger laid down a perfect bunt. It allowed Eagan to easily score.

“(Our execution) has been better the last couple of days,” Becher said. “We just won a (SLABA) league doubleheader (on Wednesday). We really smashed the ball around and we fielded pretty good, so we’ve been getting better now that we’ve been getting guys back.”

So far this summer, American National has a 3-3 record, and will look to improve on that with three more games this weekend in the invitational.

The Eagles played the SME Lancers on Friday, and will play two games on Saturday. They begin the day at the University of Missouri-St. Louis baseball field in Normandy with a game against the St. Louis Cougars club team at 1:30 p.m.

Following a break, American National will close out the weekend with a 6 p.m. game at Harris-Stowe State University against the Ontario Prospects Reds, a team of high school all-stars from Canada.

American National’s next true home game will be next Tuesday, June 7, when the Eagles will host rival program Eagles West at the at 5:45 p.m.