By Jim Beers, Contributing Writer
CHESTER – The 2022 Chester High School Baseball season had had its share of ups and downs to date both due to weather complications and performance-wise.
Several games have been cancelled or postponed due to a variety of weather-related issues such as cold, wet, wind and snowy conditions. The YellowJackets have performed very well and experienced a few performance issues from time-to-time, perhaps due to inconsistent practice schedules, poor weather, and/or long lapses in playing opportunities.
The Jackets have only been able to play two of their six games scheduled in Week 4 and Week 5 due to rain and cold conditions. Head Coach Trevor Kelkhoff has been taking the uncontrollable factors in stride, but hopes that conditions will soon level out and that the YellowJackets will soon be able to maintain a consistent program schedule.
Chester High School Baseball player, Kaden Freytag (13) has played a significant role in the Yellow jacket’s season to date. Freytag, a senior, is a returning player at second base and was an All-Conference second baseman last year. Freytag also pitches for the Yellow Jackets and is strong at the plate. Jim Beers Photo
Marissa 9-Chester 5
The Jackets opened the season with a 9-5 loss to non-conference Marissa Tuesday March 15 on the road. The Jackets scored one run in the first inning and added two runs in both the 4th and 5th innings. Marissa, however, scored in every inning, two in the first, one in the second and third, three in the 4th inning and two in the 5th to win, 9-5.
In the loss the Jackets recorded eight hits and 4 RBI’s. Runners reached base twice on balls and scored five runs. CHS committed three errors which hurt their efforts. Ethan Stumpe, Dylan Kelkhoff, each got two hits apiece. Gage Hasemeyer and Kaden Freytag recorded singles. James (1), Kelkhoff (2) and Hasemeyer1) had RBI’s for Chester. Brendan Baughman pitched for the Jackets.
Chester 5-Carlyle 3
Tuesday March 29 the Jackets traveled to Carlyle and won their first Cahokia Conference game of the season, 5-3. Chester opened the first inning with two runs to set the tone. The Jackets scored another run in the top of the 4th to take a 3-0 lead, but the Indians scored in the bottom of the 4th and CHS led, 3-1.
Chester scored two more runs in the top of the 6th to extend its’ lead to 5-1, but Carlyle scored a run in both the bottom of the 6th and 7th innings. It was, however, too-little-too-late as CHS won, 5-3.
In the win, Chester scored 5 runs on 11 hits and four RBI’s by Stumpe, James, Hasemeyer, and Koby Jany. Matt James and Gage Hasemeyer had pitching duties for Chester. For the game, the YellowJackets only committed one error.
Chester 4-Okawville 3
The Jackets hosted Cahokia Conference rival Okawville Thursday March 31 at the Cohen Recreation Complex Baseball Field 1. In the outing the Jackets scored 4 runs on 7 hits with no errors.
The game was scoreless after 3 ½ innings of play. The Jackets blew the game wide open in the bottom of the 4th inning when Kaden Freytag (1), Matt James (2), Trace Fricke (2), Gage Hasemeyer (1) and Brendan Baughman unleashed a total of seven hits and 4 RBI’s to take a 4-0 lead.
In the end that would be all that Chester would need to win as Okawville scored one run in the top of the 6th and two runs in the top of the 7th to muster just three runs. Kaden Freytag got the win for Chester as the YellowJackets improved to 2-0 in the Cahokia Conference race.
Red Bud 6- Chester 0
Tuesday April 5 the YellowJackets traveled to Red Bud to challenge the Musketeers in the third Cahokia Conference game of the season. Red Bud jumped out to a strong performance with three runs in the first inning and two runs on the second to take a convincing, 5-0 lead after two innings of play.
The Musketeers added a final run in the bottom of the 6th inning to shut the YellowJackets out, 6-0 for the day.
In the loss Chester could only record two hits, one by Chance Mott and the other by Marcus Murphy. Murphy also reached base on balls, but otherwise the basses were not visited the remainder of the game. There were 12 YellowJackets that struck out.
Red Bud scored six runs on five hits and three RBI’s. The Musketeers also had five batters reach base on balls. Seven batters struck out. The loss gave Chester its’ first Cahokia Conference loss of the season and dropped the conference record to 2-1.
Wesclin 10-Chester 2
Jackets hosted Wesclin in the fourth Cahokia Conference game of the season on Thursday April 14. This was Chester’s only game of Week 5 as games against Elverado, Sparta, and Nashville had to be cancelled or postponed due to foul weather.
The Wesclin Rockets rocked the Jackets at the Cohen Recreation Complex to a tune of 10-2 to even Chester’s Cahokia Conference Mississippi Division record to 2-2 with the loss.
In the loss Chester scored two runs on just six hits by Mott (1), Stumpe (1), Freytag (2), James (1) and Fricke (1). Freytag recorded the two RBI’s for Chester. The Jackets had six batters strike out in the game and two errors. Freytag (2) and James (5) had pitching duties for Chester.