In the shadow of the construction of the Walker Natatorium, Pioneer baseball notched their second win of the season in a 6-0 affair against SLUH on a balmy, 75 degree afternoon.

Coming in hot off a 16-4 victory over Rockwood Summit March 28, KHS sent Cole Mechelke, junior, to the mound. He retired the first two Junior Billikens, conceded a single, then picked the SLUH runner off with a swift move. In the back half of opening inning, Mitch Mobley, senior outfielder, and Adam Kohl, junior, walked consecutively, yet the Pioneers failed to capitalize, as junior outfielders Chris Berry and Luke Lowry grounded into fielder’s choices and Connor Cline, junior infielder, flied out to right.

After giving up a single to start the second inning, Mechelke forced three straight flyouts to retire the next three SLUH batters. Two Pioneers, Gino Visconti, senior infielder, and Logan Bradshaw, senior, catcher, reached, yet were left stranded due to a Mobley drive to deep left which happened to find the leather of the opposition.

Mechelke continued grooving, striking out two in the top of the third (the batter of the first reached on a drop) and impelling a ground out. As Malcom Gladwell notes in Outliers, success arises as result of circumstance; in this case, prosperity for the Pioneers came about due to well-placed strikes at the porous defense of SLUH. Kohl reached to genesize the frame. To precede, both Lowry and Kohl were safe on a fielder’s choice off the bat of the prior. Berry, as before, mimicked Lowry, grounding into a fielder’s choice, which removed the aforementioned from the equation. Berry stole second, and with a misfielded rocket directly at the second baseman, he made his way to third as Cline, the batter, reached first, in the process scoring Kohl. Cline, in an effort to steal second, forced a pickle, thus enabling Berry to score. Deck walked and Visconti struck out to end the third.

Two fielder’s choices and a strikeout relieved any threat resulting from a Kohl misplay to open the fourth inning. SLUH retired Coronado via a groundout and Bradshaw with an unnecessary dive, walked Mobley and forced Kohl into a flyout.

On a rope to right center, Berry made a Sportscenter Top 10 worthy catch after a Jr. Bill grounder to third and a batter reaching on balls. Bradshaw rifled out the alluded batter in his quest to steal second. In the bottom of the fifth, Lowry split the first and second basemen to begin his brief tour around the bases. Before Berry attempted to help the cause, Lowry stole second. Berry grounded into a fielder’s choice, directing Lowry towards third; an overthrow from the first baseman allowed him to score with ease. Cline flied out and Deck grounded out to conclude the inning.

Joey Mundschenk, senior, replaced Mechelke to begin the sixth, forcing his first batter into a Ryan Howard-esque groundout. After loading the bases, Mundschenk struck out his fifth batter and ushered a double play. Visconti was retired on a dribbler to embark upon KHS’ last set of at-bats. Coronado walked, leading Shaw to call upon Tommy Hopper, senior outfielder, for his running services. Bradshaw cracked a double to left center, spurring a second and third situation with one out. Collin McGee, junior catcher, replaced Bradshaw on the basepaths. Mobley subsequently reached, leading to a Kohl doubled, scoring the duo of pinch runners. Lowry scored Mobley on a sac fly to increase the lead to six.

SLUH went down one, two, three in the top of the seventh; striking out, failing to touch first base on a potential double and grounding out respectively.

April 7 the Pioneers travel to Pattonville for their next contest.