St. Vincent baseball team picks up second win of season against Meadow Heights

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- In a season dotted with more lows than highs, the St. Vincent baseball team didn't squander a rare opportunity to enjoy one of those highs.

The Indians pounced on Meadow Heights with a seven-run third inning Saturday afternoon that proved the catalyst for a 14-6 victory in the Chaffee Round Robin Tournament.

St. Vincent (2-6) sent 13 batters to the plate in the third inning that saw both Cole Steinbrecker and Nathan Carroll reach base twice and score twice. Jordan Rellergert chased Meadow Heights starting pitcher Brendan Welker with a two-run single, and David Caramillo, Lance Chapman and Carroll added run-scoring singles.

"Our team is very young," St. Vincent coach Jose Robles said. "We have 28 kids, and 20 of them are freshmen and sophomores. We're looking at next year and down the road."

But Robles had to like what he saw against Meadow Heights. Rellergert had three hits and drove in four runs, Carroll had three hits and three RBIs, Kevin Mattingly had three hits and drove in a pair of runs, and three other Indians batters had multiple hits.

"I feel like whenever we start hitting the ball we get on these runs where it just comes one after the other," said Steinbecker, who went 2 for 4 with an RBI and scored once. "The innings that we do score have been pretty high-scoring innings. That's just how it works sometimes."

The big inning erased a 3-0 deficit and gave the Indians a 7-3 lead, which they stretched to 11-3 with a four-run fourth. Carroll provided the big hit, a two-run single that plated Rellergert and Mattingly.

Meadow Heights shortstop Jake Thele runs down St. Vincent's Jordan Rellergert before tagging him during the third inning Saturday, April 12, 2014 in the Chaffee Round Robin Tournament in Chaffee, Mo. (Fred Lynch)

Mattingly's two-run single highlighted a three-run seventh for the Indians.

"We've been doing pretty good at not giving up and scoring again and just keep getting runs," Steinbecker said.

Meadow Heights (0-7) scored once in the fifth and added two more in the sixth but simply couldn't climb out from under that big early deficit.

"We usually have one or two bad innings," Meadow Heights coach Charlie Doublin said. "We're a young team. We're learning. We're starting to come around."

Jordan Yamnitz was 3 for 4 and scored twice for the Panthers, who found some success against St. Vincent starter Lance Newmann.

"He was throwing good," Panthers catcher Jacob Douglas said. "Just a lot of errors. We haven't got to practice much. The field's been muddy, and the weather and stuff hasn't been very good."

Newmann was pleased with his performance after he allowed six runs -- just three earned -- on nine hits, walking two and striking out five in six innings before giving way to Luke Wibbenmeyer, who tossed a scoreless seventh.

"I felt good," said Newmann, who improved to 2-1 on the season. "All my pitches were good, my curve ball was really good, my arm felt fine all the way through."

He said the early offensive support helped him relax on the mound.

"Pitching without that added pressure makes it easy," he said. "Just throw and catch. Not having the pressure that you have to be perfect, just throw strikes."

Youth and inexperience showed up at bad times for the Panthers, who committed just one official error but botched several makeable plays and missed several throws in the infield that could have prevented runs from scoring.

Doublin said doing the small things right are what he's looking for at this point of the season.

"Our fundamentals," Dublin said. "And being consistent at it."

St. Vincent 007 400 3 -- 14 17 5

Meadow Heights 300 012 0 -- 6 9 1

WP -- Lance Newman. LP -- Brendan Welker. Multiple hits -- St. Vincent: Nathan Carroll 3-5, David Camarillo 3-3, Jordan Rellergert 3-5, Kevin Mattingly 3-5, Cole Steinbecker 2-4, Lance Chapman 2-3; Meadow Heights: Jordan Yamnitz 3-4, Nick Mayfield 2-3, Jake Thele 2-3. Records -- Meadow Heights 0-7, St. Vincent 2-6.