By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

After a heartbreaking quarterfinal loss at home to E.D. White during the prep baseball season, St. Charles Catholic wanted to wash that taste out of their mouths as soon as possible.

The American Legion season has seen a start to that process. Townsend Homes, St. Charles’s Legion squad, has started the summer off 2-0, most recently netting a 4-1 win over Rummel-based Deanie’s Seafood at Comet Field Wednesday.

“It’s a new group, a group of new guys getting their chance,” said Townsend Homes coach Paul Waguespack. “As a coach, you get to see who comes through and succeeds with it. That’s something that as a coach you enjoy … At 2-0 against these teams, our guys making plays, it’s all I can ask for. I’m excited.”

Rummel enters Legion coming off of a finish as 5A runner up.  

Lefthander Connor Smith earned the win, going 5.1 and allowing just one hit while walking four. Austin Weber earned the save, allowing a single hit over 1.2 innings.  Brandon Zimmer socked a home run for Townsend.

“After we lost to E.D. White, we came back to working on the little things,” said Smith. “Stop popping up, putting it in play, and pitching wise, get back to pounding the strikezone … especially with the wooden bats, it’s a totally different game.”

“We’ve executed the little things over our last two games. We’re tired of that feeling of losing in the last moment.”

Deanie’s struck first after three scoreless innings, getting on the scoreboard on Spencer Velt’s RBI double to deep center. Connor McWilliams walked to lead off the inning.

It took just one batter in the bottom half of the fourth for Townsend Homes to knot things up as Zimmer blasted a ball to right-center and over the wall for a solo shot.

“Brandon Zimmer just picks up where he left off in prep,” said Waguespack. “We got the timely hits today.”

Townsend took the lead for good in the fifth. Connor Western led off with a walk and then stole second. With one out, Kameron Keller bunted him over to third; a Deanie’s error led to Western scoring the go-ahead run to make it 2-1.

Chad McNeil stepped up to bat and hit a ball sharply on the ground to left. That got past the outfielders and went for an RBI double, pushing the lead to 3-1. Finally, Luke Poche singled home Townsend’s fourth run to round out a three-run frame.

Deanie’s had chances to score in the sixth and seventh, putting multiple runners on base — that included a seventh inning push that saw Deanie’s Jon Riers and Jeremy Sterling reach with no outs, and a sixth inning that saw Deanie’s load the bases.

But each time Townsend turned a double play to end the threat.

“You turn two double plays, that’s big,” said Waguespack. “(Smith) threw a lot of balls, and he had a few too many walks, but he battled today. He battled his butt off and you can’t be disappointed (with one hit allowed).”

The win came in Townsend’s first home game of the summer, it’s first since that quarterfinal loss to the Cardinals.

Smith said that it’s simply good to get back into action.

“The worst feeling in the world is seeing someone else dogpile on your field and knowing you were so close,” he said. “We just have to learn from it.”

TOWNSEND HOMES 9, PONSTEIN’S 4 — Townsend Homes began Legion play at Kirsch-Rooney Stadium Sunday as it came away with a victory over Holy Cross-based Ponstein’s.

Zimmer went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a pair of runs scored. Dillan Gilles was 2-for-4 with three RBIs. McNeil also had a pair of RBIs.

David Bleakley, McNeil and Weber combined to throw all seven innings. McNeil earned the win, walking one and allowing no hits over two innings.

Townsend Homes scored five runs in the fifth inning to turn the game in their favor.

“We were happy. That’s a team of seniors, the same team that went to the state semifinals,” said Waguespack. “That was a good win for us.”

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