Don’t let the 8 losses for the Edwardsville Tigers against their 31 wins fool you, they have played a brutal out of state schedule with only 2 of their losses (Belleville West & Teutopolis) were to teams in Illinois.
The Tigers head to Joliet to the 4a Final Four this weekend making their 19th trip to a state tournament, including their 3rd trip to Joliet in a row. The Tigers are the two-time defending 4a state champs and will open up Friday afternoon at 4pm against Providence Catholic after winning the Illinois Wesleyan Super Sectional Monday over Downers Grove North 7-1.
Coach Tim Funkhouser is in his 26th year at Edwardsville will over 800 wins at the school and approaching 900 in his 29 year career. The Tigers are led at the plate by Joe Chiarado (.420) and Will Downs (.421), but its been their pitching that has dominated the season for Edwardsville. Chase Milburn and Ethan Stewart have combined to throw 76 innings allowing just 10 earned runs and striking out 69 to just 27 walks.
Providence Catholic (31-8) is out of the Chicago Catholic Conference. The Celtics have been dominating at the plate with 4 hitters raking all season long. Cooper Eggert has a .443 average with 5 home runs and 25 RBI, Enzo Infelise added 7 home runs and Jackson Smith hit a whopping .435 with 6 home runs and 45 RBI. Nate O’Donnell also hit .434 with 11 home runs to lead the way and drove in 52 runs in their 39 games. Coach Mark Smith is in his 17th season with Providence winning the state title in 2014 and 2015 and a state runner up in 2011. They won they Crestwood Super Sectional over Chicago Mt Carmel 3-2.
The 2nd semifinal Friday night is Elmhurst York (31-9) and Conant (29-7) at 7pm. The York Dukes are from the West Suburban Conference. Coached by Dave Kalal in his 16th year he won a 4th place trophy back in 2022. They are making a repeat trip to state going 0-2 in Joliet last year. Ryan Sloan is their ace on the mound going 2-2 on the season in 40 innings he has an ERA of 0.18 only giving up 1 earned run all season. Noah Hughes is 8-1 with 56 ks in 53 innings and a 1.32 ERA.
The Conant Cougars are from the Mid-Suburban League making their first trip to state. Coach Derek Fivelson is in his 12th year with the program. Jake Parpet has hit 8 home runs with a .427 average for a potent offense. Matt Maize and Isaiah Rhodes have also driven in over 30 runs each along with Josh Barnett. Franklin Kirchner has 75 strikeouts on the season and is 2nd on the team to Bryce Leoger with 96. His ERA is 1.00.
