Tigers' Burris, Wescott bats are on fire to start season

EDWARDSVILLE – Dylan Burris and Drake Wescott had good days for Edwardsville's baseball team in ther 4-2 win over Plainfield South at Tom Pile Field Friday night in the Prep Baseball Report Metro East Kickoff Classic.

Burris had a key two-run double in the bottom of the second that brought home Reid Hendrickson and Dalton Wallace to give the Tigers a 3-2 lead over Plainfield, then Westcott, a freshman, connected on a pitch that went over the boards in right-center to extend the lead to 4-2 in the fifth.

The Tigers had taken advantage of a pair of dropped third strikes that allowed runners to reach base and advanced on passed balls that helped set up the three-run outburst. “It's about just staying calm and trusting yourself and your teammates,” Burris said. “If you have that much pressure on you and you start to panic, you can't perform under pressure. You must remain calm if you expect to perform; that's what we did.”

“I got down in the count two or three times,” Burris said of his two doubles on the night, “especially my first two at-bats; that's going to happen when you haven't seen live pitching or live at-bats; I just had to fight it out and saw a pitch I could drive and it was one I could take the other way – that's what I did.

“It is a nice way to start the season; I think it'll put a lot of momentum into our ball club.”

“When I hit it, I knew I hit it well,” Westcott said. “I didn't know if it was going to go out, but I fought off a few pitches in that at-bat, worked to get to a 2-0 count and got my pitch and hit it.

“It's going to propel our team forward, especially beating a good team like that; we should have a lot of momentum this season.”

Being on the Tiger varsity as a freshman “is a really cool experience,” Westcott said. “We've been in practice, in inter-squads (games) and I've been getting used to the pitching and everything.”

The Tigers' next games are at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at home against Greenville and 4:15 p.m. Thursday at home against DeSmet.

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