A beautiful afternoon for baseball welcomed the Lewis and Clark Trailblazers home to the Godfrey Ball Park on Sunday, where they hosted the Spoon River College Snappers in a doubleheader, their second of the weekend. The first doubleheader happened on Spoon River’s home turf in Canton, where both sides won a game.

The teams had seemingly become quite familiar with each other over the weekend, and you could feel the tension on the diamond at the Godfrey Ball Park as the day waned on.

Game 1: Lewis and Clark 11, Spoon River 1 (F/6)

After Spoon River jumped out to a 1-0 lead early on the back of a few hits, Trailblazer pitcher Conner Pinsker really settled down, fanning two in the next inning, and didn’t allow another run all game. In the fourth inning, Spoon River’s Trey Kazubowski gave a pitch a long ride that went just foul for a loud strike two. Next pitch, Pinsker struck out Kazubowski swinging, a great recovery after his previous pitch was sent about 380 feet.

On the offensive side, LC’s bats were humming, and Spoon River starter Colin Fenili couldn’t find the zone consistently. Three runs in both the 2nd and 4th innings chased Fenili, who gave up nine hits to Trailblazers in the process. Landon Cummins relieved him, and was clearly not right. Cummins couldn’t get over, or control, his pitches. He hit a few LC batters, and walked another, and gave up three hits, accumulating three more runs. He was relieved by Jarrot Stealy, who got out of the long 5th inning after giving up a sac fly.

That’s when player and coach frustrations started to show, and also when an umpire decided to aggravate those frustrations. After striking out in the 6th, the previously mentioned Trey Kazubowski was ejected from the game, and therefore not eligible for the second of the doubleheader. I was about 20 feet from him, separated by fence and dugout, and while players were chirping at the umpires, he specifically was just getting his equipment from what I could see and hear, and yet he specifically was thrown out.

“We’re losing 10-1” said Spoon River coach John Dyke, “You don’t need to say a thing to the umpires.”

Dyke’s frustrations also turned to his players. “It’s all ‘I didn’t do this, I’m hurt, it’s all me, me, me’.”

Now while not hustling is one thing to complain about, a pitcher trying to pitch hurt and failing to do so probably isn’t the thing to get mad at here. That’s a coaching decision to put him out there and simply a failing of coaching to let him pitch hurt and then complaining about it.

In fitting ironic fashion, a mental lapse by Spoon River’s catcher scored the run-rule winner for Lewis and Clark, a pass ball walk-off. Something I’m sure coach John Dyke was thrilled to see.

Game 2: Lewis and Clark 3, Spoon River 1

The second game proved to be a much tighter contest, till the very end. Spoon River had slightly more luck at the plate in this game, facing LC starter Zach Seavers, but that luck rarely became runs. A triple and an RBI double in the 3rd inning led to the lone Snapper run in game two, rarely enough to win a ball game.

Trailblazer bats were largely stifled by Spoon River game two starter Jake Fosdyck in this pitcher’s duel. Godfrey Ball Park’s vaunted infield grass played a part in some of the hits he gave up, producing some infield hits that would have been routine outs on some other diamonds. Lewis and Clark tied the game 1-1 in the 5th, setting up a tense final few innings.

A 6th inning fielder’s choice scored Dylan Walker of LC, and Jake Fosdyck’s good day on the bump ended the next at bat, when he was ejected from the game by the same umpire who ejected Trey Kazubowski in game one. Fosdyck didn’t agree with the call at first, and let the umpire know, who very quickly threw him out of the game. He was relieved by pitcher/infielder James Shaw, who gave up an RBI single to Chris Iazzetta to make it 3-1 in favor of the Trailblazers in the 6th.

Zach Seavers went back on the mound to close out his complete game, and gave up a few more hits in the process. With runners on and only one more out to win the game, Lewis and Clark coach Randy Martz went out and asked his hurler if he could get one more out. Seavers stepped up to that challenge in a big way, and confidently recorded the final out of the ballgame.

Winning three of four against Spoon River propels the Trailblazers to an impressive 26-13 record on the campaign. They close out the season with another home-and-home doubleheader series, facing off with Heartland Community College.