Chaminade Baseball Hopes to Overcome Inexperience

The baseball team’s season started on a rocky note on Thursday evening, but the Red Devils are eager to move forward and build upon last season’s 16-10 record.

The Belleville East Lancers defeated Chaminade, 9-3, at GCS Ballpark in Sauget in a two-hour, 45-minute contest played in extremely chilly weather. The game was part of the Missouri Border War series which pits Missouri teams against Illinois teams over a period of three days.

Chaminade’s youthful pitching staff struggled in the season opener. The Red Devils started Luke Bumgarner on the mound and Brandon Minor and Jordan Royal also pitched. They walked a combined 15 batters and struck out three.

“You have to come out and play, that’s the big thing,” Chaminade coach Chris Chiburis said. “The weather is cool; it’s been nice and warm for awhile, so that was an adjustment as well. We’re kind of young and if we don’t throw strikes, things aren’t going to work out.”

Recovering from the loss of key players after a successful season will be a challenge for Chaminade in 2011, as it lost several key starters to graduation, including two starting pitchers in Tyler Wood and Jimmy Meyerkord. Its top five hitters each graduated. Chaminade went 3-5 in the Metro Catholic Conference last season, finishing three games behind CBC.

The Red Devils also struggled to capitalize on offensive opportunities on Thursday, as they stranded eight runners.

“I know we had opportunities and didn’t get things done,” Chiburis said. “The games later on are the important ones, but you’d like to start out well.”

Chaminade established a 1-0 lead in the first inning thanks to Bumgarner’s one-run single. East capitalized on Bumgarner’s control problems on the mound in the top of the second inning. Bumgarner walked East’s Vinnie Burk to force in a run and make the score 1-1. The Lancers went ahead 2-1 when Bumgarner hit Billy Ferreri with a pitch. The Lancers scored two runs more in the third and fourth innings, added one run in the fifth and then two more in the sixth.

Bumgarner was Chaminade’s No. 3 pitcher last year. Chiburis said he suffered from arm troubles toward the end of the season.

“He (Bumgarner) hasn’t pitched much since July,” Chiburis said. “Plus, he’s on our basketball team which did really well. He hasn’t been out there in our first few practices. We were expecting three or four innings out of him but the walks were a real problem.”

Bumgarner was 4-1 in 2010 with 35 strikeouts in just 30 innings. He allowed just one earned run the entire season. He also hit .295 with five doubles.

The Red Devils have seven seniors this year: Clayton Dyer, Ian Miller, Charlie Mager, Danny Sims, Alex Watt, Kevin Riley, and Bumbarner. Chiburis said his senior class is not as experienced as in the past and that the team would rely heavily on junior talent.

Juniors Adam Unterberg and Daniel Mestres are competing for time at first base. Junior Jake Goessling started at second base against East, but Chiburis said Royal will also play second. In addition, Goessling will also do some pitching this season.

Junior Nolan Sponsler, who has been playing varsity since his freshman year, will start at shortstop. Bumgarner will also play third. When Minor isn’t pitching he’ll play in right field, Dyer will play center field and junior Nick Forte will play in right field.

Sponsler hit .246 last season but had 16 hits and nine RBI. Dyer hit .292 last season with 19 hits and 15 RBI.

When it comes to moving runners around the bases, Chibrus said his team wasn’t stacked with power hitters and would have to rely on bunting, sacrifices and stealing to move runners around the base.