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American National Baseball Teams Aim For Strong Postseason Run
By Jim Wieners
American National Baseball teams hope that a postseason run pays off as the seasons come to an end for all age levels.
As soon as St. Louis Amateur Baseball Association closes the season July 12 and wraps up their league tournaments the league teams will be playing in different post-season tournaments.
American National 18 and under was to close SLABA regular season play July 10 against the Jefferson County Blazers and a win over the Blazers can assure the Eagles of no worse than a second-place finish on head-to-head tiebreaker (American National won 7-2 on June 19). Prior to a July non-league game with the O’Fallon, Ill., American Legion team, the Eagles were 13-4 and in third place in SLABA, 23-12 overall. The Blazers, prior to playing Johnny Mac on July 9, was 13-3 in SLABA, 21-14 overall.
Prior to July 6 the Stallions, a St. Charles County team, were 13-3 in SLABA 18, 23-7 overall and are 2-0 in league play against both the Eagles and Blazers. Should there be a three-way tie for first the Stallions own the tiebreaker.
Oday Alyatim is American National’s leading hitter with a .402 average, has at least 11 doubles, has a .610 slugging percentage, a .510 on base percentage and has been hit by opposing pitchers at least four times. Michael Hardin has at least four home runs, at least four triples, scored at least 39 runs, and has at least 18 walks.
Shane Olmstead has at leas 32 runs batted in while Steven Kinnison has at eight stolen bases. Olmstead, Kinnison and Cory Lubinski have sacrificed at least four times.
In pitching Shane Hartwig has at least six complete games, at least five wins, a 1.07 earned run average, pitched at least 46 innings, faced at least 132 batters, has at least 62 strikeouts, averages 9.43 strikeouts per game, a 20.67 strikeout to walk ratio and at least a shutout. Brendan Fosdick, with at least three wins, has at least three saves, a 0.45 earned run average and a 0.83 walks plus hits per seven innings pitched in at least 10 games pitched. Curtis Nothdurft has at least a shutout.
SLABA 14 — Prior to July 6 American National 14, who won the SLABA 14 title with a 15-0 record, was 34-6 overall. The Eagles were six games ahead of the Stallions (6-3, 10-4 prior to July 7) and the Stallions had five SLABA-14 games left including a July 12 season-ender against the Southwest Stars.
Offensively Micah Evans was batting .483, slugging .890 slugging and on base percentage of .558, has at least five home runs, at least 11 triples and scored at least 67 runs. Anthony Green has at least 14 doubles, drove in at least 55 runs and sacrificed at least three times. Neil Lee has made at least 161 plate appearances and has been hit by pitch at least six times, Ken Piper has at least 27 stolen bases and Connor Burnett has at least 27 walks.
In pitching Burnett pitched at least 11 games of which at least two of them were complete, pitched at least 38.7 innings, faced at least 187 batters and at least seven wins. Green has 45 strikeouts, 9.74 per game and 65 strikeouts to walks ratio, Dalton Niedringhaus has pitched in at least 13 games with at least three saves and Zach Moravec has a 1.40 earned run average and has averaged 0.80 walks plus hits per seven innings pitched.
SLABA 17 — Prior to July 5 American National 17 was in third place in SLABA with 7-5 record, 11-12 overall.
Offensively Ted Molinari has at least 18 runs batted in, scored at least 21 runs, stolen at least 13 bases in at least 88 plate appearances. Mike Schlossnagle was batting .472, slugging .583 and had an on-base percentage of .500, Darrell Green has at least 2 triples and was hit by pitch at least two times, Connor Manis has at least nine doubles and Justin Witte has at least 14 walks while Jared Frank and Anthony Gosser has sacrificed at least two times.
In Pitching Manis has a 2.53 earned run average, with at least 23 strikeouts, an 8.33 average, an 11.51 strikeout to walk ratio, a walks plus hits per seven innings pitched average of 0.88, pitched in at least 19.3 innings, has at least two complete games and at least a shutout. Molinari has at least four wins, has pitched in at least eight games (along with Frank, who also has at least a save).
