Lindbergh Wallops Mehlville, Claiming Early-Season Tournament Championship

SUNSET HILLS -- In a bit of an early-season surprise, and thanks to some red-hot hitting over the first week of the new season, it was the two host schools of the Lindbergh-Mehlville Invitational Baseball Tournament that advanced to Wednesday's championship game at Lindbergh High's Flyers Field Athletic Complex.

Lindbergh essentially earned its trip to the title game by pulling off an upset of No. 1-ranked Vianney in the season opener last Saturday, while Mehlville claimed its spot by winning all three of its pool play games against Affton, Hazelwood West, and Oakville.

That set up a highly anticipated matchup of two of South County's fiercest rivals.

Unfortunately, the heavyweight fight many thought they'd see on Wednesday, didn't really materialize, as Lindbergh mauled Mehlville 15-2 to claim its first Lindbergh-Mehlville Tournament championship since 2002.

“We came out and we really put the pressure on,” Flyers head coach Darin Scott said. “Offensively we’ve just swung the bats really well the last two days.”

Indeed they did.

Lindbergh (4-1) pounded out 12 hits against the four Mehlville pitchers it faced, including five base knocks, along with four walks, a hit batter, and two errors, off ace right-hander Austin Simokaitis, that helped the Flyers build a 6-1 lead.

Mehlville actually jumped on the board first, when Simokaitis doubled with one out in the top of the first, then scored when teammate Kurt McGuire doubled him home one out later.

But that lead didn't last long, as Simokaitis had trouble finding the plate in the bottom of the first, and walked four batters and hit another, to allow Lindbergh to score twice without the benefit of a hit.

The third inning though, was the most troubling for Simokaitis.

He gave up a leadoff double to Lindbergh's Sean Murphy, then after an error, and a fly out, gave up three straight hits and a squeeze play bunt that made the score 6-1, and knocked Simokaitis from the game.

"He just didn't have it today," Mehlville head coach Tim Ode said. "He's our ace, and most days, he's really good, but today wasn't one of them. But we know what kind of pitcher he is. We've got some big games coming up next week, and he'll be back out there for us."

Those matchups for Mehlville (4-1) include road games at Seckman and at Webster Groves next Tuesday and Wednesday.

"I was a little disappointed with how we played today," Ode said. "We know we've got a young group here, and they're going to make some mistakes. But we've got some older guys here too, and it was disappointing to see us not play our best game out here today."

Lindbergh on the other hand, couldn't have played much better.

The Flyers made at least three stellar defensive plays, including a nifty 6-4-3 double play to end the game, which helped close out a fantastic pitching performance by starter Jay Heller.

The senior right-hander went all five innings for the Flyers, and scattered seven hits, with no walks and two strikeouts.

It was his first win of the season for Lindbergh, to go along with a save in the win against Vianney, and just might have been the Flyers' best mound performance of the season.

"We know we're going to be really competitive whenever (staff ace Jordan Harmon) is on the mound," Scott said. "The real question was who was going to step up when he wasn't. And Jay Heller really did that for us today."

Hitting stars for Lindbergh on the day included Murphy, who went 3-for-3, with three doubles, two RBIs, and four runs scored.

Teammates Brandon Graham and Jack Manley both had two hits apiece, while Heller added a hit and three RBIs of his own.

With the championship trophy in tow, Lindbergh will get a full week off before it plays its next game, which is slated for Thursday, March 29, when the Flyers will host Bishop DuBourg High at the Flyer Field Athletic Complex.

DuBourg is 2-2 this season, and will be playing in its own tournament this weekend at Heine Meine Ballpark in south city.

ODE STILL OPTIMISTIC ABOUT PANTHERS THIS SEASON

Despite the rough performance on Wednesday, Mehlville's Ode was adamant that he still believes his club can be very good this year.

The Panthers play one of the most difficult and grueling schedules of any team in the area. But Ode is convinced the group he has is up for the challenge.

"We've got some real good leadership in our catcher Austin Kretzer, our starter today Austin Simokaitis, and Kurt McGuire, that I believe we'll bounce back from this real quick," Ode said.

"Things kind of happened today, where you say 'oh here we go again', but I really expect us to play well when we get back to it next week."

One particular bright spot for Mehlville on Wednesday was the play of new varsity performer Dylan Okenfuss.

A 5-foot-8, 155-pound sophomore, who's starting at shortstop for the Panthers, Okenfuss had two stinging base hits and an RBI in the game.

This season, he's already hitting well over .600, while manning the most important defensive position on the field for Mehlville.

"We've been very impressed with Dylan," Ode said. "He only played freshman last year, no JV. But we just thought he could really help us on varsity this year.

"And he's been great so far. I think he's got at least two hits in every game so far. We're going slow with him. But we're really excited about what that young man has shown us so far."