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Sports

Hazelwood West Baseball Takes Fourth at Fort Zumwalt North Tournament

Wildcats open weekend with win over St. Dominic, but lose in third-place game against Timberland.

O’FALLON – After being relegated to nothing but practices and simulated games in the school gym because of the constant rain in the area the last two weeks, the varsity baseball team finally got to play some actual games this past weekend.

The Wildcats were one of eight teams competing in the Fort Zumwalt North High Tournament, at Westhoff and Ozzie Smith parks, with a chance to play against several ranked teams from different parts of the region.

Unfortunately though, a weekend which began with such promise, including a 4-1 win against St. Dominic High (ranked No. 5 in area top 10 small schools poll), ended with a thud, 8-4 and 13-2 losses against Fort Zumwalt East High and Timberland High (No. 10 large schools), respectively.

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“(We like this event) because it helps with getting some guys a lot of at-bats, and we got all our pitchers in,” West head coach Matt McClellan said. “This helped us get back on track a little bit.”

And while some of those guys looked like they hadn’t missed much work at all, some others looked a little rusty at times. But that’s exactly why McClellan was particularly excited about playing three games in two days against such stiff competition.

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“We’d been off for basically two weeks,” McClellan said. “So this was a good opportunity to get some guys some work.”

One player who didn’t seem bothered by all the time off was sophomore pitcher Shane Olmstead.

He started the tourney opener against St. Dominic on Friday, and delivered a spectacular performance, tossing a complete game at the Crusaders, while allowing just one run and three hits in a 4-1 Wildcat win.

Olmstead also struck out nine on Friday, including one stretch in the first three innings, where he sent five of six St. Dominic batters back to the bat rack shaking their heads after whiffing on strike threes.

Olmstead’s effort was actually the second straight game in which a West High starter dominated an opponent. Junior Brendan Fosdick did the same thing in the Wildcats’ 5-2 win against Hazelwood Central High on Thursday.

“In both those games, Brendan and Shane got a lot of strikeouts, and kinda had control of those games,” McClellan said. “The last two games (though) our pitchers weren’t strikeout pitchers and our defense didn’t really step up.”

Those last two games were the second game on Friday, against Fort Zumwalt East, and Saturday’s third-place game against Timberland, both contests in which West’s defensive rustiness played a key role in what became back-to-back losses for the Wildcats.

“I’m not going to use the extra days off as an excuse,” McClellan said. “We have been practicing. We have been working on some things. They just have to buckle down on defense a little bit better, and they know that. We’ve got a lot of opportunities next week to get where we want to be.”

Weather permitting, West will be in action almost everyday this week, with games scheduled  each day through Thursday, May 5.

Today, West will travel to Hazelwood East High for another important league game, before traveling to Kirkwood High on Wednesday, to make-up a previously rained out contest from last month.

The Wildcats will close the week on Thursday, by taking on Riverview Gardens High, in a contest that will be played at Koch Park in Florissant, as part of that community’s weekend celebration.

First pitch for all four West High games this week is 4 p.m.

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