Hazelwood West Baseball Whips Riverview 13-1

BELLEFONTAINE -- Sometimes in baseball, you just know it’s going to be your day.

Especially when the smallest guy on the field cracks a 420-foot home run on the first pitch of the game.

That’s what happened April 12, when the varsity baseball team visited Riverview Gardens High. Senior centerfielder Trevor Jones led off the game with a monster blast on the first pitch of the game, to spark the Wildcats to a 13-1 win against the Rams.

“That’s actually the second game in a row Trevor’s done that,” Hazelwood West head baseball coach, Matt McClellan, said. “He did that last Thursday when we played Hazelwood East, too. It sure is a nice way to start a game off.”

Jones’ clout was his second of the season, and the fourth of his prep career, and it seemed to spark a veritable hit parade for the Wildcats, who totaled 16 hits against Riverview pitching.

Jones finished with three hits and three RBIs, falling just a triple shy of the hitting for the cycle. Sophomore teammate Shane Olmstead also blasted a home run, the first of his high school career, and had three RBIs, as West cruised to an easy win against the undermanned Rams.

“It was definitely a good day for us, but we’re still not quite where we want to be just yet,” McClellan said. “We’re getting there, but we still have a lot of work to do.

"We’re just not gonna be satisfied at this point of the season.”

After Jones’ home run, West scored five more runs in the first to give starting pitcher Jared Fosdick a big lead before he ever even took the mound.

The Wildcats then added Olmstead’s solo homer in the second, two runs in the third, another single run in the fifth and finally three more scores in the sixth to close out the game.

And with his offense clicking the way it was, Fosdick cruised through the Ram lineup, mowing down Riverview in every inning, except the third, when it pushed across its lone run on a sacrifice fly by senior D.J. Steward.

Fosdick (1-0) earned the complete game win, allowing the one run, on four hits and one walk, with a season-high seven strikeouts.

West will be right back in action on April 13, when it travels to Chesterfield to play its final matchup in the Parkway Tournament, against Parkway Central High. That game is slated for a 4:15 p.m. first pitch.

Then on April 14 at 4 p.m., the Wildcats will hit the road again and take on Suburban North Conference frontrunner Pattonville High. The Pirates took first place in the league on Tuesday, when it knocked off top 10-ranked Hazelwood Central to stay unbeaten in conference play.

“(Parkway Central and Pattonville) are two really good teams,” McClellan said. “We’re going to have to be at our best if we’re going to be able to compete against teams like that.

"We can’t be going through the motions like we were at times today.”