The Collinsville Pirates baseball team continued their swashbuckling playoff run, sweeping the Muenster Hornets two games to none in the regional finals May 22.
The Hornets kept things interesting in the early innings of games, but the Pirates found a way to pull away late in both matchups, winning Game 1, 9-1, and Game 2, 9-5.
“We played well in Game 1, [but] in Game 2 we made a few mistakes that kept Muenster in the ball game,” Collinsville head coach Derrick Jenkins said. “We had two or three double plays that we didn’t just finish. If we finished those, I think they only score a couple runs in that game, but we're pitching well and playing good defense overall.” Collinsville cracked the scoreboard first in Game 1, with a sacrifi ce fly from outfielder Caysen Schafer that drove in one run in the bottom of the second inning.
Muenster knotted the score at 1 in the top of the third inning with a ground ball single.
The Pirates took control of the game with a three-run burst in the bottom of the fourth inning and salted the game away with a fiverun burst in the bottom of the seventh inning, taking the win 9-1.
Collinsville rolled into Game 2 and took an early 2-0 lead in the first inning on a double to center from Schafer that drove in two runs.
Muenster responded with a 3-0 scoring run, finding themselves on top, 3-2, in the bottom of the third.
Pirates’ shortstop Paxton Davidson helped put Collinsville back in front, 4-2, with a two-run triple in the top of the fourth inning.
The two teams continued to trade runs, with the score tied 5-5 at the end of regulation.
Collinsville exploded for a fourrun salvo in the top of the eighth inning and held Muenster at bay to take the win 9-5.
Third baseman Jaxon Jenkins led the Pirates at the plate with four hits and five RBIs in the doubleheader.
With the win, Collinsville secured a spot in the state tournament for the third straight season. “It just shows the program that we have, and that's what we want people to know about us,” Derrick said. “We decided to build a program here where there's an expectation to win, and there's a high expectation on what you do. Plus, this shows that you can still work hard and hold people accountable, and kids can handle those things.”
Despite the string of success, Derrick said he and his team are expecting a fight in the next round.
“From what we’ve seen, [Stamford] is going to be good,” he said. 'They remind me a lot of Muenster. They have baseball kids, and they know how to play. They do a whole lot of things well, [but] we feel like we match up against anybody because we do so many things ourselves.”
Collinsville was scheduled to meet the Stamford Bulldogs in the state semi-finals for a best-of-three series, with a double header starting at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
Game 3 is scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday if needed.
The results were not available by press time.
