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By Curtis Duncan
When it comes to Southwestern Conference baseball, there is plenty of familiarity between Belleville East and Collinsville. The two Southwestern Conference clubs entered the week ranked first and fifth, respectively, in the Post-Dispatch large school baseball poll.
Collinsville lost to the Lancers, 5-3, on April 1, but the Kahoks got another crack at the Lancers and cashed in on their opportunity this time around.
A four-run fifth inning keyed by Adam Embick's RBI single lifted the Kahoks to a 10-6 upset over Belleville East, Thursday, at Collinsville High School.
Number five Collinsville moved to 12-3 (5-2 in the Southwestern Conference). Top-ranked Belleville East, losing its first game of the 1999 season, slipped to 19-1 (6-1 in the conference play.)
"[Among] the two teams, there has been some tradition, and the kids know each other, but they like each other," said Collinsville coach Steve McFall. "We just played hard, and they played hard; [we'd] get up, and they would come right back…We'd get up again, and they would come back again, and that's just Belleville East-Collinsville baseball. That's just kind of the way it goes."
It was not a joyous day for the Lancers, though, as Collinsville ruined East's perfect slate.
"They played better than we did, and they deserved to win," said Belleville East coach Dennis Schutzenhofer. "We didn't play well in the field, and that's not the usual Belleville East team that's out there. Neither of us have played in seven or eight days, and it affected us more than it did them."
One other factor that may have affected the Lancers more than anything else was a controversial and pivotal call in the top of the fifth when East was at the plate.
Down four runs, East battled back with runners at first and second. The Lancers had pulled within one of Collinsville at 5-4, but the rally would go south shortly thereafter.
After taking a 3-1 pitch, East first baseman Andy Schutzenhofer headed to first base on a pitch that he thought was ball four; the home plate umpire, however, called it a strike. After a conference between umpires, Schutzen
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