Cooper walkoff homer gives Tigers 4-2 win over Warriors in eight innings

EDWARDSVILLE – Those in attendance knew from the start that Tuesday's Southwestern Conference baseball game between Granite City and Edwardsville was going to be a close one from the first pitches of the game.

Namely, Warrior leadoff batter Austin Bonvicino opening the game with a leadoff homer to right-center.

Things just went from there, the Warriors grabbing a 2-0 lead and holding on to it most of the way before the Tigers tied it up in the bottom of the fifth and GCHS pitching helping to send the game ot extra innings before Jack Cooper stepped up to the plate and ended the game the way it began.

With a home run.

Cooper sent a Cade Bartling pitch over the wall in left to score Andrew Yancik ahead of him to give the Tigers a 4-2, eight-inning win over the Warriors at Tom Pile Field, putting the Tigers at 12-3 on the year, 5-2 in the SWC; the Warriors fell to 6-10 on the year, 3-3 in the league.

“Their pitcher (Andrew Hailey, who went four-plus innings) did a good job on the bump and Kade (Burns) wasn't as sharp has he had been, but he was still pretty good for us,” said Tiger coach Tim Funkhouser. “He did a great job for us keeping us in the game there; we were able to plate the two in the fifth. We needed to make better adjustments within the at-bat – we didn't do as well today.”

Burns didn't let the Bonvicino leadoff homer bother him. “He's even-keel,” Funkhouser said of Burns. “He's not going to let one pitch affect him; that's not how you want to start off a game – the opposing team does – but he just kept battling and put us in a good situation to be where we wanted to be towards the end of the game.”

“I gotta give it a lot to our kids who came out and battled,” said Warrior coach Scott Smallie. “There's not a lot of people outside our circle that would believe we could play with the teams in this conference, but we're getting better, we're growing and we're going to keep going.”

The Warriors have improved from last season's edition. “We're young, but last year's guys left a good foundation for these kids,” Smallie said. “They worked hard in the off-season, did what they had to do and these guys learned from that and carrying on that tradition. We're hoping to turn it around so when Granite City shows up, it's like 'watch out – they're going to have a fight on their hands.'”

“I think they're playing good baseball,” Funkhouser said. “I thought all their pitchers were able to throw strikes and multiple pitchers, and their defense was solid; they had some tough at-bats at the plate. They're much-improved from last year.”

Bonvicino's leadoff homer put the Warriors on top quickly, with a second run coming in the third when Bonvicino was hit by a pitch, got to second and came home on a Cameron Hibbets RBI single. The score stayed that way until the bottom of the fifth when Cooper led off with a single and Colin Elvers was hit by a pitch to put runners at first and second; Burns then drew a walk to load the bases, bring Drake Westcott to the plate.

Westcott delivered, hitting a two-run single to right-center to bring home Cooper and Elvers to tie the game at 2-2. Both teams managed to get two runners on base in the seventh, but couldn't score and the game went into extra innings. The Warriors threatened in the eighth when Matt Woods got to third on an error, but Issac Garrett got Bennett Smallie to ground out to end the threat.

In the bottom of the eighth, Yancik stroked a one-out single to represent the winning run; after Reid Hendrickson flew out to left, Cooper came up and got around a Bartling fastball and sent it over the fence for the walkoff two-run homer.

Cooper finished the day at 2-for-4 with the homer, two RBIs and a run scored; Dylan Burris was also 2-for-4 on the day, with Westcott 1-for-3 with two RBIs and Yancik 2-for-4 with a run scored; Blake Burns and Dalton Wallace both had runs scored for the Tigers; Bonvicino went 1-for-3 with the homer, a RBI and both runs scored for the Warriors, with Hibbets 1-for-3, Tyler Wheatley 1-for-4, Woods 1-for-4 and Freddie Edwards 1-for-3.

Garrett got the win in relief for the Tigers, going two innings and striking out two; Burns went six innings and struck out six for EHS. Bartling took the loss, striking out two; Hailey struck out two and Hibbets fanned three for the Warriors.

Edwardsville heads to Mayfield, Ky., for a set of games Friday and Saturday, taking on Union Grove, Wis., at 1:30 p.m. Friday and Benton, Ill., at 6:30 p.m. Friday before meeting St. Francis Borgia of Washington, Mo., at 10 a.m. Saturday. Granite City meets up with Belleville West on the road at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, then hosts Civic Memorial at Babe Champion Field  at 4:30 p.m. Friday before visiting Breese Mater Dei at 4:15 p.m. Monday.

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