The Vianney baseball team finished off a big week with a 5-2 victory against top-ranked Edwardsville on April 19 at GCS Ballpark.

No. 3 in the large-schools rankings, the Golden Griffins entered the week having lost three of their last four games. They ended the week with three victories in three days against ranked opponents after beating No. 5 St. Louis University High 7-6 in eight innings, No. 4 Francis Howell 13-12 and the No. 1 Edwardsville Tigers.

The Griffins take on Parkway West April 23 at home. On April 24, they travel to De Smet. The De Smet game will be broadcast live on prepcasts.com. Game time is 4:15 p.m.

In five Midwest Classic tournament games, Aaron, the Griffin’s leadoff hitter, went eight for 15 with three doubles, three walks, five RBIs and six runs scored.

Vianney defeated Francis Howell North early in the day March 31 in the tournament semifinals. In the afternoon, the Griffins fell behind Lee’s Summit 5-0 in early innings, but came on strong to win it 7-6.

Senior Aaron Bossi had a two-run double, junior Kevin Dvorak had an RBI single and senior Jake Walters had a two-run single.

The old grass was torn out, three truckloads of dirt were hauled in and the infield was leveled and sodded in preparation for a great 2012 season.

Read more.

Read more.

Read more.

Read more.

Members of the Griffin baseball program participated in their own Ironman Competition in November as part of an offseason lifting program. Tommy Donovan ’03 and Coach Scott Brown put the Griffins through a course that featured events including tire flips and sled drags.

Jack Klages won the varsity division, Chris Brown earned the JV title and Chris Dreyer won the freshman division.

Read more.

KIRKWOOD • They say two-out hits will  get you to heaven.

They can also win you a district championship.

Tied at 10 with two on and two out in the bottom of the  seventh inning, Vianney junior second baseman Jake Walters smacked a ground ball  between Summit’s third baseman and shortstop to score junior shortstop Nick  Ulrich from second. When Summit’s left fielder tried to come up throwing, the  ball slipped away from him. There was no play at the plate.

Ulrich scored easily and the Golden Griffins were bouncing  their way through the infield with the 11-10 win in the Class 4 District 3  championship game Wednesday at home.

“I got a fastball and I poked it through,” Walters said.  “There weren’t any nerves. We’ve been preaching all year we didn’t want to go  home early.”

Vianney (23-8), the No. 8 team in theSTLhighschoolsports.com  large-school rankings, will take on Eureka in the sectional round at 4:30 p.m.  Tuesday at Vianney.

In a game that featured two explosive offenses— Walters  took the second pitch he saw on the afternoon and cranked it to the deepest part  of the ballpark for a two-run home run — it was pitching that made all the  difference in the end.

Trailing 10-7 with the bases loaded and one out in the top  of the sixth, Vianney was in trouble. The Golden Griffins had surrendered two  runs already and Summit (13-16) appeared primed to put up a few more.

Vianney turned to junior right-hander Teddy Rule to hold  the Falcons in check.

He managed a fielder’s choice and strikeout to escape the  inning without further damage.

The Golden Griffins answered right back with three runs of  their own in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game at 10. This time, Vianney  left ducks on the pond as junior left-hander Dustin Myers got sophomore third  baseman Matt Brown to strike out swinging with two on to get out of the jam.

Heading into the top of the seventh, Summit had been held  scoreless in just one inning of the game. Rule ripped through the bottom third  of the Falcon lineup with a ground ball out and two strikeouts. It was the first  time Summit went down in order all afternoon.

He picked up the victory, running his record on the season  to 3-1.

When his turn came, Myers, who took the loss and is now  1-4, got the first two outs, but an error put Ulrich at first base. He hit  senior leadoff hitter Clayton Pfeiffer, which brought Walters to the plate.

The rest, as they say, is history.

It was history that kept the Golden Griffins grinding  through their slugfest with the Falcons. Vianney lost in the district title game  last season. It was something that kept Vianney’s fire burning throughout the  offseason all the way up until they were dancing around the infield as the  victors.

Summit saw its season come to an end in heartbreaking  fashion. The Falcons will lose four seniors from their roster. They took their  share of lumps this season. Through all the ups and downs, coach Ken Droege was  impressed with how his team responded.

“Our kids remained focused,” he said. “They continued to  get better every day.”

He said while there are positives to take away from this  experience, his team was disappointed with the loss.

“That was one heck of a ball game,” Droege said. “To have a  game of this caliber and teams hitting the way they do, it (stinks) someone has  to lose.”

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/sports/high-school/baseball/article_dda95922-81b7-11e0-84f8-001a4bcf6878.html#ixzz1bvetqIbn

The second weekend of the Parkway Tournament saw the freshman Griffins travel to Parkway Central to take on the host Colts in the first game of a double header, followed by Parkway North in the second game.  Vianney loaded the bases with one out in the first inning, thanks to two hit batsmen and a screaming double by Nick Knese.  The Griffs were able to push across just one scant run, though, on a walk to Jake Ludwig.  Michael Albes took the ball for Vianney, and despite some questionable decision-making from the umpiring crew,he was able to strike out five Colts in the first two innings without surrendering a run.  Vianney added a second run in the third, as Tanner Cochran led off with a base hit and came around to score on Mat Jones’ single that just
eluded the Parkway Central second baseman.  After a 1-2-3 bottom of the third, the Colts broke through in the fourth when a dropped third strike that would have secured the third out kept the inning alive.  Two singles and an error later, the Colts had scored three unearned runs to take a 3-2 lead.  But the Griffin offense would pick up their starter in the fifth inning with three of their own.  Back-to-back walks to Keaton Wall and Cochran opened the frame.  After two quick outs, a third walk to Chris Brown set the stage for Ludwig, who crushed a booming double to right field to bring home a pair of runs.  Ludwig then toed the rubber in relief of Albes and shut down the Colts without allowing a hit over the final two innings.  The Griffins turned the game into a laugher
in the sixth inning, as the first six batters reached base without a hit, and RBI-singles from Brown and Jack Kemper contributed to an eight-run inning for a 13-3 final score.

Vianney again struck first in Game 2 against the Vikings.  Blake Strebler reached on a one-out infield single, and after Nick Allgeyer walked, Vianney stole a run when Allgeyer caught himself up in a rundown between first and second.  Paul Iseman started on the hill for Vianney and didn’t allow a ball out of the infield until the third inning.  With a man on first and one out, the Parkway North hitter drove a deep fly ball to right, but Zach Medcalf fielded the double and threw a strike to Nick Knese, whose relay throw cut down the Viking runner at third.  Iseman kept dealing over the next two innings, working
around an error in the fourth and setting down the Vikings in order in the fifth.  Vianney added a second run in the fifth, when Strebler’s single to right drove home Garrett Staskewicz.  Three more Vianney runs in the sixth inning made it a 5-0 game and gave the Griffins some breathing room.  Allgeyer led off with a walk and scored on Ryan Rasnic’s double to deep right center.  With a runner on third and Medcalf at the plate, the Griffins executed a squeeze so well that Medcalf reached first when the Vikings didn’t cover the bag.  Medcalf promptly stole second and third, completing his circuit when the throw from the Viking catcher sailed into left field.  Keaton Wall took over for Iseman in the sixth inning and struck out the final two batters to get out of a jam.  Vianney tacked on a run in the seventh inning when Jake Hemphill walked with the bases loaded to drive in Strebler, who had singled for the third time on the day.  The
Vikings scored a seventh-inning garbage run to get on the board, but it was not enough to overcome the Griffins, who finished the double header sweep with a 6-1 win.

Notes: Blake Strebler swiped four bases in Game 2, the first
Griffin to accomplish that feat since John Udina in an 8-0 win over CBC on
4/22/10. … Jake Ludwig picked up the save in Game 1, his fourth of the year in
as many opportunities. … Tanner Cochran reached base in all four of his plate
appearances and scored four runs in Game 1.