Tuesday Feb 25

                             

This is just a continuation of my journal. No BB's news except Doc believes tomorrow still be too wet. Hoping for Thursday.

   I-SC Hoosiers continued

Chapter 2: The Regular Season

The month of April was just as angry as March. Of the 12 games on our schedule, only 5 were able to be played. Here are some highlights of the area baseball scene in 1973.

March 30 Notre Dame beats Cape Central 2-0

April 4 I-SC goes to 2-0 with a 9-5 win over Oran

April 7 In a matchup of what is considered the 2 best pitchers in the area, Chaffee's Scott Thomas bests                   Kelly's Jeff Jackson by a 3-1 score.

April 12 Kelly's Kenny Urhahn throws a no-hitter versus Delta. I-SC repeats another 9-5 win over Oran

April 13 Jeff Jackson of Kelly 1-hits Oran

April 17 Kelly's Jackson throws perfect game against Oak Ridge. He strikes out 16 of the 21 batters he faces

April 26 Urhahn throws his second no-hitter, a 3-0 win that took 9 innings over Charleston

April 27 Thomas throws a shutout in Chaffee's 6-0 win over Notre Dame

There is a reason for the several mentions of Chaffee and Kelly as we set up the story of the district playoffs. Oh, along the way so far, Chaffee beats us 8-1 with their 2nd line pitcher and Kelly beats us 6-2 in a strange game. The game was delayed when a shower hit before the first pitch. We sat in the bus until both coaches determined we could still play. Finished a couple of innings before the rain hit again. Back on the bus. Rain slacks. Back out on the field until we played enough to call it a game. 

We head into the district tournament with only 5 games played, a 3-2 mark. Little did we know what was in store for us.

Chapter 3: The District Tournament

1973 was the first year of 2 classes in baseball. Up till now, all 300 plus teams played in a single tournament. The biggest schools in St. Louis, Kansas City and such competed with the Deltas and Bell Cities of the state. This year, if I-SC wanted to come out on top, we only had to beat out 177 teams instead of 300. The first hurdle was the 12-team Chaffee district.

Chaffee was the #1 seed with Notre Dame #2 and Piedmont #3. Somehow, we were given the 4 seed with our meager 3-2 record resulting in a first-round bye. This set up a matchup with Woodland H.S. on May 3rd. I do not remember a single pitch from this ball game. I clearly remember, however, that we were the second game on that field that day and I had 2 tickets to the Black Oak Arkansas concert that night at the Arena Building. We probably didn't start until almost 5 and though we won (8-1 I'm told) I was more worried about getting to the concert. Thankfully, my very considerate brother left our only vehicle for me to use when I got home. He got a ride with his buddies, and they ended up with front row seats. I managed to get there before Black Oak started their set and managed to get a very decent view from the side. Successful day completed, bring on the Chaffee Red Devils.

May 8th #1 Chaffee vs #4 I-SC

As they had defeated us handily without him, we were surprised to see Scott Thomas warming up for Chaffee before our semi-final contest. Scott stood 6'7" and was not thin, striking an imposing threat from the pitcher's mound. He really didn't throw as hard as some of those we would face later, but since the ball seemed halfway to home by the time it left his hand, little surprise he was a most effective hurler. (Scott would attend the U.S. Naval Acadamy and have a distinguished career as an officer in the U.S.N. He was the closer on the Midshipmen baseball team.) Chaffee was not taking any chances; they were going with their Ace.

Scott and I had a previous history competing. In an 11–12-year-old All Star game, he hit me with a pitch on the hand. My best effort to tough it out failed, I cried. Then in this past year's football matchup, I blocked one of his punts that left a bruise and the imprint of the laces of the football for a couple of weeks. Today, however, I hit him. More accurately it was a bloop over the shortstop's head that contributed to our unexpected victory after falling behind in the first inning. The newspaper article even said that the 2-run lead made Chaffee look like 'sure winners' with Thomas on the mound. Taking advantage of some Red Devil miscues in the field, we built a big enough lead to withstand their 7th inning rally.  

The headline says it all.

District Championship #2 Notre Dame vs #4 I-SC

Any competition with Notre Dame had a different vibe than playing other schools. Familiarity was one reason. Three ND starters were schoolmates with me at St. Augustine (our ss and 2 players on our bench were as well). That leads to my only remaining memory of that game. 

Notre Dame knocked out our starter in the 1st inning and took an early 3-1 lead. We returned the favor in the bottom of the 3rd making it a bullpen game. ND then cut the lead to 1 in the top of the 5th when our coach made his last move. Rules of the day limited a pitcher to 10 innings a week and though he had pitched 7 stressful innings the day before our Ace had 3 remaining and Coach Willie was going to use him to finish the game. The ND runner on 2nd, a former classmate, watched him warm up and asked, "What has he got that is so hard to hit?", as he wasn't impressed with the warmup. "He's a lefty who can't throw a straight pitch, even if he tries", I answered. (This is the only memory of that game that I have clearly retained.) The subtle movement on all his pitches usually led to not so solid contact. Sure enough, he stopped the rally and closed out the game. 

I-SC had defeated both the #1 and #2 seeds to claim the district title.

In the Oran district, Kelly advances when Urhahn throws his 3rd no-hitter of the season, striking out 12 Bell City Cubs and Jackson throws his 2nd no-hitter, a 10-0 win over East Prairie.

Suddenly, of the 178 schools in the tournament, only 16 teams remained.

I-SC is heading to the Regional Tournament in Van Buren. 

Our first-round opponents will be The Kelly Hawks.