When Tanner Houck was pulled with one out in the fifth inning and the Kahoks trailing Althoff 6-4, the pro scouts who came to watch him pitch, packed up their radar guns and left Arthur Fletcher Field. They missed the best pitching of the game.
Tanner Houck / Photo by Roger Starkey
Kyle Reeves replaced Houck and shut the Crusaders down for 5 and 2/3 innings, allowing only one inherited runner to score, that on a squeeze bunt by the first batter he faced. Reeves also sent the game to extra innings with a seventh inning sacrifice fly that scored Houck.
Reeves heroics on the mound and at the plate set the stage for Aaron Peskar’s game-winning, two-out single in the bottom of the 10th. With the bases loaded, Peskar hammered the first pitch he saw into left field, scoring Spencer Thomas and giving the Kahoks an 8-7 win.
The game did not go as planned for the Kahoks (4-0). With Houck on the mound, and at least eight Major League scouts in the stands to watch him, most assumed the game would move quickly. Two Crusaders (1-1) reached against the 6-foot-5 right-hander in the first inning. One on a wild pitch after striking out and the next batter on a single, before Houck, hitting 92 on the radar gun of multiple scouts, worked his way out of trouble.
Collinsville jumped ahead 2-0 in the bottom of the second when Reeves, who had walked, scored on an error. An RBI single by Grant Bauer plated Thomas. Meanwhile, Houck faced the minimum in the second inning and struck out the side in the third.
Reeves RBI double in the third gave the home team a 3-0 lead. He was driven home by Bauer to give Collinsville what would seem an insurmountable 4-0 lead.
Two errors allowed the first two Althoff hitters to reach in the fifth. One walk and two wild pitches later, the Crusaders had cut the lead to 4-2. Dylan McEwen, Collinsville’s regular catcher did not play. Starting second basemen Mitch Reising replaced McEwen behind the plate.
After a ball was dribbled so softly that Bauer, playing shortstop, had no play, the Kahoks attempted to let a bunt roll foul, but it hugged the line, loading the bases with nobody out for the Crusaders for the second time in the inning. The next batter punched the ball through the hole between first and second to knot the game at 4-4.
“Althoff did a great job of putting the ball in play and making people make plays,” CHS Head Coach Pete Trapp said. “In high school baseball, you do that and good things happen.”
Houck struck out the next batter – the only out he would record in the inning – before throwing wildly to first on a pick-off attempt to allow another run to score. The next batter blooped a double down the left-field line, giving Althoff a 6-4 lead and sending Trapp to the mound to get the ball from Houck.
“Tanner was a little geaked up,” Trapp said. “He’ll get better. He’s a kid that knows what he needs to do. He’ll look back on this and figure out what things went wrong.”
Trapp handed the ball to Reeves, who was dominant for the next 5 and 2/3 innings. Using a low 80’s fastball, precise control and great movement, Reeves surrendered only two singles, struck out five and did not allow a walk.
“Kyle came in and did a great job,” Trapp said. “He came in and threw strikes, he pounded the zone.”
Collinsville scored single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh to send the game into extra innings and set up Peskar’s walk-off single.
“Our guys showed a lot of character coming back,” Trapp said.
