For once, the baseball gods were kind to the Oakville American Legion baseball team.

Oakville walked away with a solid 6-2 win June 28 over Ballwin in a game that included strong defense and a stellar effort from starting pitcher J.R. Fogelbach.

“Finally, we actually put a good game together,” Oakville head coach Matt Boyer told the Call. “We actually played a pretty well-rounded game.”

Fogelbach went 71⁄3 innings pitched and gave up just one run on nine hits. He also walked three batters and struck out two in his first start of the 2006 season.

“J.R.’s predominately been our workhorse where we use him three times in four days,” Boyer explained. “He’s a competitor and always wants the ball. We felt it was time to give him a start.”

Oakville’s Matt Pressler came in for the save as he gave up one run on two hits in the final 1 2⁄3 innings of the game. Pressler also walked one batter and struck out two in his first save of the year.

“During the high school year, Matt was thrown in the closer role a lot of times,” Boyer said. “The way the team’s been going here lately, he knew how big this game was for us.”

Second baseman Josh Welch led Oakville with a three-hit performance that included two runs batted in. Before the week started, Welch was holding down a .375 batting average with nine runs batted in.

“Ballwin’s pitcher was throwing a lot of off-speed pitches on the corners,” Boyer said. “Josh was able to figure him out right away and took advantage of it.”

Oakville is back in action at 5:30 p.m. Friday as the team takes on Chesterfield in a doubleheader at Parkway West Senior High School.

“It’s nice to have a little momentum, so it’s really important for us to build off this win (over Ballwin),” Boyer said. “This game was important for us because it shows the boys that if you get good pitching and good defense, you can win ballgames.”