Johnie Logue
Sports Reporter
With two of their top four pitchers, who were also offensive and defensive keys, injured in the preseason and at times starting an all freshman infield, Lincoln's prospects of winning their district looked bleak. However, both injured players are back and the freshmen have matured. On Wednesday, it all came together in their 4-3 victory over Windsor at Lincoln to win the Class 2 District 13 championship.
After Lincoln jumped out to a 3-0 first inning lead, Windsor, with one of the best hitting teams in the area, used one run in the third and two in the fourth to tie the game.
Lincoln, seeded second, even though they had beaten top seeded Windsor at Windsor 3-1 back on April 27, was the visiting team on the scoreboard, which meant that Lincoln needed to score in the top of the seventh and then shut out Windsor in the bottom half of the nail biting inning.
Windsor retired Lincoln's first two hitters. Lead off hitter, Dawson Parrott, the team leader in hits as a freshman, would single on a 1-2 count ground ball in the hole at short. Zaden Cole hit a little grounder that should have been the third out but Windsor made an error on the relay to first and Cole was safe.
In comes senior Connor Lynde with the scenario he had dreamed about as a kid. The problem was that he was 0 for 3 and had been in a month long slump.
"I have been getting under the ball," Lynde said. "I picked up a lighter bat and my dad (and head coach) told me to forget the last at bats."
Lynde fouled off the first two pitches and his hopes were down to one last strike and possibly his last at-bat for Lincoln High School. However, he ripped the next pitch into center field and Parrot would race home for the go-ahead run.
Now with Parrott on the mound, the stage was set. As the late Mike Shannon, former St. Louis player and announcer, who died last week, would say, "Abner Doubleday has done it again."
In the bottom of the seventh, the first Windsor batter singled and stole second. Hard-hitting Peyton Witherspoon would strike out. The next hitter would fly to center where sure handed Connor Lynde patrols. Kaleb Eaton would walk and bring up the number three hitter in the lineup, Caden Paxton.
So it would be a freshman against Windsor's best hitter. He would pop-up to third baseman, Hunter Vandaveer, who started on the hill and pitched a marvelous game going 5.1 innings, throwing just 62 pitches. Did we mention he was a freshman too?
The two injured players, senior Kaleb Mundy came back a month ago and stabilized the Cardinals' pitching and defense, playing third, short and the outfield at various times. The other player was freshman Riley Sanders, who came back two weeks ago at 90 percent and gave them another bat and a racehorse on the base paths. He can't pitch yet but he is getting there.
"I am just glad to come back and help the team anyway I can," the excited Sanders said after the game.
The usually stern, direct but friendly Lincoln coach, Will Lynde, was emotional after the game.
"I told the players at the start that we wanted to win every game but our main goal was to win our district," he said. "Every 3 years we have a great group of freshmen come through Lincoln. This group did not see a lot of playing time in the other two major sports but have excelled here. Riley coming back was huge. You are going see him over the next 3 years and you are going to like everything he does."
{In case you are wondering, the torch was passed from Boone Kroenke's class to Jackson Beaman's class to Connor Lynde's class and now to Riley Sanders freshmen class.)
Speaking of Sanders, he got the go-ahead single driving in 2 runs breaking the 6-6 sixth inning tie on Tuesday as Lincoln beat Archie 10-6 to advance to the finals.
Down 5-0, very few of the Lincoln faithful thought Lincoln could mount a comeback. Again, Lynde was a factor as he walked 3 times, officially going 0 for 1 but scored 2 runs. Lynde went 4.1 innings on the mound giving up 5 earned runs on 5 hits, striking out 11 and walking 2.
Jayden Kelly was another hero in the mix as he drove in 4 runs with a double going 2 for 4 and made an outstanding running catch in left field. Lincoln scored 5 in the fifth and 5 in the sixth.
Turner Kriessler, another freshman, Mr. Curveball, got 2 outs in the fifth. Mundy would come in and finish up giving up 1 run on 3 hits. Parrott went 2 for 4 with a triple scoring 1 run.
Lost in it all was Lincoln's defense with no errors in the title game and only one against Archie.
Lincoln played Tipton on Monday night at Lincoln. Those results will be in next week's Enterprise.
