Bears begin Legion postseason with one mission in mind
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EDWARDSVILLE – The Metro East Bears American Legion baseball team is heading to the Legion postseason with one mission in mind.
Do whatever it takes to get to the American Legion World Series, set for Shelby, N.C., Aug. 10-15.
The Bears will begin their quest to get to Shelby at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Hoppe Park in the Illinois District 22 playoffs; they got a first-round bye when East St. Louis was unable to field a team for the tournament. The Bears will have home-field advantage all the way through the District 22 playoffs, a double-elimination tournament, which concludes Saturday with the winner going to next week's Illinois Fifth Division tournament in Highland, with the Fifth Division winner moving into the state tournament in Rantoul July 26-29.
Unlike the last two years when Metro East hosted it, the Bears will have to win their way to get to the Legion Great Lakes Regional, which will be held in Napoleon, Ohio, near Toledo, from Aug. 2-6, with the winner heading to Shelby for the Legion World Series.
The Bears clinched the District 22 No. 1 seed with a 6-0 win over Smithton Friday night at Edwardsville High's junior varsity field; the Bears were happy to have clinched home field with the win. Kade Burns got the win, scattering four hits as he got stronger as the game went on.
“That's been pretty much the story since the beginning of the high school season,” Burns said after Friday's win. “I kind of start off a little touch-and-feel and once I get a groove in, it settles in and it feels nice out on the mound.
“At this point, it just happens naturally; I'm not trying to start off the game letting them get two hits, it ends up happening like that and it's worked out. It's always better to get better as the game goes on. I felt my off-speed pitches moved more than have been recently; it was good to get them where I wanted them too. There were a lot of swings-and-misses on sliders in the dirt when they were looking for fastballs outside.”
That the Bears will get to play at home for the District 22 playoffs is something infielder Joel Quirin believes is well-deserved. “It's great,” Quirin said. “We've been playing well and I think we deserved that title.”
The Bears have been playing consistent despite having a different lineup on the field most every day during the summer for one reason or another. “Everyone on this team have been playing ball together for quite a while,” Quirin said. “They're players and they're competing. We're all still young; some of us are just going into college and I think everyone has room for improvement anytime; of course, we're going to take it game-by-game and improve game-by-game.”
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