Summer Sports Spotlight: Sam Chambers, St. Charles Post 312 American Legion Baseball

Summertime baseball is Sam Chambers' time of the year.

Now that's a bit unusual compared to most other local baseball players, who generally put all their effort and energy into the spring high school season.

But the high school season hasn't been a whole lot of fun for Chambers the last couple of years, because his team at hasn't won a whole lot.

In fact, the 2011 Pioneers won just one game the whole year. 

"We were 12-15 this spring though, so it wasn't too bad," Chambers said, in a brief interview following a 5-2 victory he helped deliver with what , the St. Charles Post 312 American Legion squad last week.

"But we played a really tough schedule. We're kind of a smaller school, and we played a bunch of the bigger schools like Fort Zumwalt and Francis Howell. It was just tough to put together a bunch of wins against that kind of schedule."

So really, it makes perfect sense that Chambers, who will play his collegiate ball at Rockhurst University in Kansas City next year, would really look forward to the summer season with Post 312, a club he helped lead to its first district title since 2004 last year.

The 5-foot-9, 175-pound hitting machine finally gets to be in a fair fight on the baseball diamond, and when he takes advantage, he gets to show he deserves to be ranked among the best hitters in the area.

"I just try to do my job and get on base for my teammates," Chambers said. "It's been fun. I've been doing that, and we've been winning, so you could say I'm enjoying the summer more than I did the spring."

It only takes a quick read of the stat sheet to know that's true.

In just 12 games this summer, Chambers is already leading the entire American Legion District 9 league in hitting with a .500 batting average, and he ranks near the top among all area summer league ballplayers in total hits (16), on-base percentage (.633), walks (9), and stolen bases (12).

"He's a dynamite player, no doubt about it," Post 312 head coach Kurt Denningmann said. "He's our catalyst. He gets us going."

And with Chambers, and Duchense High teammate Michael Pundmann, who also is headed to Rockhurst next year, leading the way, Post 312 seems headed for another championship run in District 9.

"We definitely have a team that can win it again this year," Chambers said. "We've got a good lineup, and some real good pitching. We've just got to make sure we show up and play like we're supposed to every game.

"We know every year it's going to come down to us, Washington, and the West Jags. It just depends on who executes better on the mound and at the plate when we face each other."

For now, Post 312 will concentrate on one of the grueling parts of its schedule coming up, with nine games in the next week. St. Charles will play at DeSoto on Monday, at Festus on Tuesday, at St. Peters on Wednesday, before closing the week with games on Friday and Saturday, in the nationally-recognized Diamond Sports Promotions Tournament that will be hosted at venues all over the area next weekend.

"I'm a little worried we might run out of pitching," Denningmann said. "But we've got guys that need work. They're going to get it this weekend for sure."