Late Moves Lifts St. Charles Past Wentzville in District 9 Tournament

O’FALLON—After five innings of futility and barely managing to score one run in the sixth inning of Friday night’s District 9 North Division American Legion game at Westhoff Park, St. Charles Post #312 head coach Kurt Denningmann knew it was time to make a drastic move.

So, with the bottom of the order coming up in the seventh, Denningmann took a risk and made wholesale changes to his lineup. He brought in three players off the bench to hit against a pitcher who had been completely dominating against his team to that point.

But sometimes a crazy move works.

The three replacement St. Charles players each reached base, and then scored the deciding runs in the game for a 5-1 Post 312 win over Wentzville Post #323.

“The people that sit on my bench are just as good, and they deserve starting times,” Denningmann said. “And I thought that some guys just don’t have it tonight. And I told these guys, ‘I’ll put you in, now show me.’ And they did. And that’s the whole reason. We went from there.”

The three benchwarmers that turned into stars were Travis Weidenbenner, a senior-to-be at St. Charles West High, St. Charles grad Jacob Bothe and Nicholas Knobbe, a senior-to-be at Orchard Farm High. All three players contributed immediately to the St. Charles win.

Weidenbenner got things started with a flared single over the infield. Bothe then reached on an error, and advanced on an errant throw. Knobe then worked a walk, and Post 312 had the bases loaded with nobody out.  

That brought up starting leadoff hitter Samuel Chambers, a senior-to-be at Duchesne High. Chambers gave St. Charles the lead with a ground ball to second that drove in Weidenbenner.

The big blow though came off the bat of Orchard Farm graduate Zachary Jones, who smacked a single to center that scored Bothe and Knobbe, and gave St. Charles a 4-1 lead.

Jones also put the finishing touch on the night when he circled the bases to the delight of the crowd on a smash to right field that should’ve been a meaningless two-out triple, but turned into a run when the relay throw got away.

“It was somewhat uncharacteristic for us to make so many mistakes tonight,” Wentzville head coach Bob Sellers said. “Things kind of snowballed on us a little bit. And then guys started trying to do extra to make up for it, and it just got worse.”

Wentzville now faces an elimination game against Elsberry at 2:30 p.m. at Westhoff Park on Saturday. Elsberry lost to St. Peters on Thursday night in the tournament’s first round.

The winner of that contest will then face another elimination game later on Saturday against the winner of the day’s first elimination game between West O’Fallon and O’Fallon.

“Hopefully, the guys will go home, get some sleep, and be ready to go when we get here in the morning,” Sellers said. “We’ve got, what, 12 hours. Hopefully, we’ll be ready.”

Third-seeded St. Charles earned a trip to the winner’s bracket championship game on Saturday evening at Westhoff Park. They’ll face rival St. Peters Post #313, which won Friday’s other semifinal, 6-2, over top-seeded West O’Fallon.

The winner of that St. Charles-St. Peters contest will automatically advance to the District 9 North championship finals, which will be played at Westhoff Park on Sunday afternoon, with a possible game on Monday if an extra game becomes necessary.

There are four games scheduled for Westhoff Park on Saturday: West O’Fallon will play O’Fallon at noon, Elsberry will play Wentzville at 2:30 p.m., St. Peters will play St. Charles at 5 p.m. and the winning teams from the two early games will play an elimination game in the nightcap at 7:30 p.m.