MICDS Freshman Drives Home Game Winner Over Unbeaten Ladue

Man bites dog...freshman beats a senior. Improbable as that seems, a MICDS freshman cleared the bases with a 3 RBI double in the home-half of the 7th to knock off the visiting Ladue Rams (8-1) on their home field Saturday.

It was an exciting and heart-stopping win for the 3-1 Rams on the young season.

With the sacks full and with a 3 ball, 2 strike count, freshman Harrison Burns laced a four seamer fast ball off Ladue senior reliever Lex Kaplan for the bases clearing hit and a walk-off win.

The Rams went into the home-half of the 7th, down 10-7 and facing an almost certain defeat. Kaplan, working his second inning of relief threw a high hard one, and Jack Rouse swatted it over the left center field fence for a home run.

Trey Baur ground out for the first out of the frame; Clayton Buddemeyer (starting pitcher) walked; Shane Combs struck out and the Rams were down to their last out.

Kai Rebmann and Will Southworth both nursed walks off of Kaplan, and with the bases loaded, Burns delivered the game-winner, much to the delight of the MICDS faithful who stuck around.

Probably Burnes’ biggest challenge was facing the media. “This is my first interview,” he said to a teammate, nervously.

Burns didn’t know if he would even be with the varsity. Coach Peter Jans doesn’t bring up younger players with the intention of sitting on the bench.

“I was working hard this summer, getting my practices in,” said Harrison. “It was my job to deliver. He threw me a whole bunch of fast balls and I hit that last one into right field.”

Rouse’s home run got the uprising started. “Yea, that was big. I was basically just trying to get on base to get things going,” said the inning’s lead off batter. “The guys behind me came through in the clutch and thank God Harrison came through with that key hit,” said the Rams shortstop.

For a while, it looked like it was going to be all-Ladue. The Rams put 2 on the board in the first and 3 more in the third and led 5-1 after three. MICDS get it going with 4 in the fourth.

Rouse led off the fourth with a double and third baseman Trey Baur drove him home, cutting the lead to 6-2. Shane Combs delivered a key RBI double, driving home pinch runner Christian Hanish. Then Southworth delivered an RBI double, and suddenly the lead was cut to 6-4.

Ladue got two runs back in the fifth and MICDS also scored two in the bottom of the same inning.

“We were down the other day to Lutheran North and we wouldn’t give up. We made some plays in the field and that was part of the difference. That was a big win for us,” said coach Peter Jans.

MICDS was glad to be the host and bat last. “Definitely, we had a chance to set up our pitching and see what we needed to do.

Give credit to a freshman (Harrison Burns) who came through with a big hit like that,” said Jans.

Ladue will be back. “That was a good game. It went back and forth and we didn’t finish it off and we needed too,” said Ladue’s coach Rob Garrett.

“All of our pitchers were a little off in this game. This was our fifth game this week, and we were a little tired,” said the Ladue coach.