ST. VINCENT SURPRISES ANOTHER 1A FOE, REACHES QUARTERFINALS

PERRYVILLE -- Call St. Vincent the Houdinis of Class 1A.

Masters of deception, the Indians lived for another day in the 1A state playoffs with a 3-0 victory over the Holcomb Hornets Thursday at Perryville Park.

St. Vincent finally climbed to the .500 mark despite being outhit by another opponent with a superior record. The win also put the Indians on the road for Saturday's 3 p.m. quarterfinal game against Winona.

With a record of 13-13, the Indians are a deceptive 7-1 in their last eight games, which now includes a string of three victories over highly regarded teams. The Indians, who were 6-12 at one point, played a number of bigger schools in the Jefferson County Conference. The end result was a third seed in the District 1 Tournament, which the Indians claimed with wins over second-seeded Oran and top-seeded Advance.

On Thursday, St. Vincent used a lethal combination of pitching and defense to make quick work of Holcomb, finishing the victory in one hour and ten minutes.

Holcomb (12-6 ) outhit St. Vincent by a six to four margin, but the Indians were more opportunistic. They took advantage of a couple of Holcomb mistakes at crucial times to seal the victory.

"Probably more times than not we've been outhit this year, but we play good defense and run the bases well," said St. Vincent coach Rick Wibbenmeyer. "It doesn't matter how many hits you get, but how many runs you score."

To back up Wibbenmeyer's point, the Indians have been outhit 14-12 over their last three games, but have outscored their opponents 8-1.

St. Vincent starter Derek Kutz again proved as deceptive to batters as his numbers are to the eye. He improved his record to 3-7, a bit deceiving since his earned run average was a very respectable 2.36 going into the game. It plummeted further with the stellar performance.

He relied on excellent control and let his defense do the rest. Kutz scattered six hits, struck out six and allowed no walks.

"It was pretty much a defensive effort," said Kutz. "I didn't feel like my stuff was as good as in the Oran game (2-0 win in the district semifinals), but we got the job done."

In the bottom of the second, St. Vincent's Ryan Brown led off with a double into the gap in left-centerfield, took third on an infield out, and scored on a wild pitch by Holcomb starter Kerry Emerson.

"St. Vincent is a solid ballclub, they made the plays and got timely hits," said Holcomb coach Jerry Buchanan. "We made some mistakes that hurt us."

Emerson, Holcomb's top pitcher with a 6-2 record and an ERA of less than 1.00 went the distance and kept his team in the game. He gave up four hits, struck out three, and walked two. He also led his team offensively with a single and a double in three at-bats.

The score remained 1-0 until the bottom of the sixth. Justin Amschler led off the inning with a bunt single down the third-base line that barely stayed fair. Adam Bockman then walked, putting runners at first and second with no outs. St. Vincent shortstop Tyler Wengert then hit a sinking liner to medium right-centerfield. The Holcomb centerfielder tried to make a sliding catch, but the ball skipped off his glove and rolled to the fence, which allowed Wengert to reach third with a triple and knock in two big insurance runs for St. Vincent.

The Holcomb Hornets did get a lead-off single from Emerson in the top of the seventh. He moved to second on a groundout by his brother Brett Emerson. But the next play saw St. Vincent shortstop Wengert reach to his right and backhand a low line drive just off his shoetops and throw to second to double off Emerson. A fitting ending to a defense-dominated game.