Sports
St. Mary's baseball in title game today
Southern Illinois Junior High School Athletic Association Class S baseball championship.
By JOHN ROARK
john.roark@register-news.com
COULTERVILLE — It’s been very close on a few occasions, but the Mt. Vernon St. Mary’s Junior High baseball team will try to once again claim a Southern Illinois Junior High School Athletic Association Class S championship.
Field conditions notwithstanding, the Knights will carry a 16-2 record into today’s 3 p.m. title game against Century, which packs a 23-1 mark.
Rain postponed Friday’s title game, and a decision on whether to postpone the final round to Tuesday will be made before noon today,
“We’ve scouted them, and they have a pretty good pitcher,” St. Mary’s coach Tom Fulkerson said. “They haven’t had much competition so far in the tournament. We’re hoping to give them a game.”
In reaching the title game, St. Mary’s beat Woodlawn to win the regional, then opened play at Coulterville with a 5-2 victory against Hoyleton, which afforded the Knights a note of revenge.
“We had lost to Hoyleton and Rome in the regular season,” Fulkerson said.
Then in the Oct. 7 semifinals, St. Mary’s zipped past St. Peter/Paul of Waterloo 7-1, while Century blasted Carrier Mills 19-0.
Century has outscored the opposition 29-0 in two games at Coulterville City Park.
Fulkerson will send his son, staff ace Brock Fulkerson, to the mound. He will have had four days’ rest since beating St. Peter/Paul.
“Brock has pitched the first two games at state,” the Knights coach said. “We have been pitching well and hitting well, so we’ll see if we can do it again.”
St. Mary’s starting lineup consists of shortstop Jason Hapeman, Brock Fulkerson, Zack Jones in center field, Jake Pike at first base, Logan Bodine catching, David Modert at third base, Miles Tate in left field, Trace Carello in right field and Blake McPherson at second base.
Carello and McPherson are sixth graders, and Bodine is in seventh grade, the rest of the Knights’ starters are eighth graders.
There’s a lot of excitement in the St. Mary’s hallways in the past few days, and the school is hoping that it can finally bring home the big prize.
“This same group finished second in basketball last year,” Fulkerson said. “Brock’s sixth grade year, they finished fourth, and as a fifth grader, we were second,” the elder Fulkerson said. “Out of the last four years, we’ve been in the finals three times. We’re happy and excited, and the kids know what they want. We’ve had a good season, and at 23-1 Century will be a decent team.”
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