SPRINGFIELD, MO. — More than 7,000 fans came out to Hammons Field, home of the Double-A Springfield Cardinals, on Friday night. Most were there for the free fireworks display after the game, but a few friends and family were on hand to watch Matt Buschmann’s first start as a professional in his home state.

The 24-year-old Buschmann, a 2002 graduate of Lafayette High School, is a right-handed pitcher for the Double-A San Antonio Missions, a San Diego Padres affiliate, and took the mound on Friday against the Springfield Cardinals at Hammons Field.

Buschmann is part of a new era of St. Louis area high school products playing professional baseball, which includes Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard (Lafayette), St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Kyle McClellan (Hazelwood West) and Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Max Scherzer (Parkway Central) along with minor leaguers like Ross Detwiler (Holt), David Freese (Lafayette), Christopher Frey (Highland), Jay Marshall (Kennedy) and Nick Schmidt (Vianney) among several others.

“I was telling my buddy the other day it’s kind of cool to be in this park, growing up as a Cardinal fan and you see all the people and the atmosphere is really cool,” Buschmann said before Thursday’s game. “Obviously I’m with the Padres now but you still think back to it. I grew up for seven or eight years in St. Louis and so it’s kind of ingrained in me. I grew up loving the Cardinals and went to the games. I look forward to it. I look forward to having my family out here. It’s a pretty cool experience.”

The result, however, was not so good for the former Lancers standout.

Buschmann surrendered three straight hits to open the game, including a single up the middle by third baseman Allen Craig that lifted the home team to an early 1-0 lead.

There would be fireworks before the post-game pyrotechnics show, as Springfield first baseman Mark Hamilton crushed two long home runs well beyond the right field fence, Craig had two hits and two RBIs and righthander Jess Todd tossed seven shutout innings and allowed one hit.

Buschmann’s final line — 4 1/3 innings pitched, 10 hits, five earned runs, two walks and four strikeouts and an 0-for-2 at the plate — dropped the righthander’s record to 4-4 on the season and pushed his ERA to 4.04.

But Friday night’s outing was Buschmann’s worst of the season, and came after an impressive string of four starts that saw him allow just four earned runs on 18 hits over 22 innings, during which he struck out 23 batters and walked only five.

“It’s his first year in Double-A and he’s been doing above and beyond really from what I’ve seen,” San Antonio manager Bill Masse said on Thursday. “He’s very competitive. He seems like he’s been getting better every start, so that’s obviously a positive. He’s very driven, very competitive. I like the way he goes about his business.”

A 15th round pick as a senior out of Vanderbilt in 2006, Buschmann was rated by Baseball America as the 21st best prospect in the San Diego Padres’ system before this season.

He was impressive at Single-A Lake Elsinore a year ago, when he went 12-6 with a 2.89 ERA in 25 starts and had 115 strikeouts against 26 walks in 149 1/3 innings.

“I think last year was a big turning point for me,” Buschmann said. “I was in high A Cal League and had a rough first part of the season and that was kind of a learning experience for me. To be able to come back from that and I kind of turned my second half of the season around and I think it gave me a lot of confidence coming into this year. I think this year it’s been more of being able to fine-tune some small things and just get ready to be consistent and take everything I’ve got and make it more consistent instead of changing major things about mechanics and stuff. It’s just taking the things I have and being more consistent.”

Consistency is one of the biggest factors in what separates career minor league players from the guys in the major league clubhouses.

Buschmann doesn’t have overpowering stuff, spotting his fastball in the high 80s to low 90s and relying on his slider as his second pitch. But the righthander has a deceptive 3/4 delivery where he throws across his body, good control and has taken to heart the Padres’ organizational thinking of attacking hitters quickly and to try to keep pitch counts low.

Masse, the San Antonio Missions’ manager, said he likes Buschmann’s competitiveness and that trait is what takes the righthander to another level in his opinion. The manager said Buschmann “wills himself” to get out batters at times, which can make the difference with a pitcher who has good but maybe not great stuff on the mound.

“What he does need to work on is he needs to work on command of his pitches,” Masse said. “Sometimes he gets a little over-excited and tries to overthrow and he loses command of his fastball and breaking ball. He needs to learn how to be more consistent with his command of all his pitches.

“You never know, that may come five years from now. It may come next year. It may come seven years from now. But I think one of the things that’s going to aid him in his development and trying to get to the big leagues is his competitiveness. This guy is a big-time athlete too. He’s a real good athlete, he takes care of himself, he’s driven and he’s got enough stuff to pitch in the big leagues. He just needs to command it a little bit better.”