Emporia loses late lead, will take on Ballwin again at
10 a.m. today
The Emporia A-16 Blue team played superlative baseball in its first three games of the Mid-States Class A Regional tournament. It’s a good thing, because thanks to what they did through Saturday’s tournament action, the Blues have another chance today to claim the Regional title after blowing a golden opportunity to wrap it up Sunday.
Two singles, a balk and a bases-loaded walk in the seventh inning ended a seesaw championship game on Sunday at Soden’s Grove, with Ballwin (Mo.) Post 611 coming back from two deficits — including an early 3-0 hole — to pull out a walk-off 7-6 win.
Emporia is the winner’s-bracket representative in the double-elimination tournament, so Ballwin’s victory set up a deciding second title game for today at 10 a.m. It was to be the third tourney matchup between the teams, and after a pair of suspenseful one-run games — starting with Brett Lechien’s near no-hitter of Ballwin on Saturday in the Blues’ 1-0 win — the smart money is on another close one.
“A championship game, you couldn’t ask for any more out of both teams,” Emporia manager Jerry Cook said. “A one-run game, we missed a few key hits (in) different situations, but we were right there, we were in the game, right there with ’em.”
For most of the game, in fact, the Blues were right there ahead of them. Emporia had answered a four-run Ballwin fourth with a three-spot of its own in the top of the fifth to take a 6-5 lead. After Blues starter Jacob Loucks got Jordan Soaib to ground to shortstop Dusty Maas for a 6-4-3 double play to end the bottom of the inning, Emporia was just six outs away from a Regional title.
But Ballwin got it tied in the sixth without a base hit. Jared Brinkmeyer led off with a grounder to Maas, whose throw to first pulled Nate Flanagin off the bag for an error. Brinkmeyer advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt and a groundout, and with two out, Loucks walked Josh Horn on four pitches — the last a wild one that allowed Brinkmeyer to score the tying run.
The Blues missed a big chance in their half of the seventh — they had first and third and one out and failed to score, with a flyout by Flanagin and a strikeout by Lechien ending the inning. Handed a chance of their own in the seventh, Ballwin didn’t miss it.
Drew Gress and Nick Rumping singled to start the inning, and a balk by Loucks moved them to second and third. Emporia intentionally walked the next batter, cleanup hitter Brian Graf, to load the bases with no one out.
Loucks gave the Blues a glimmer of hope of getting the game to extras when he blew a high fastball past Soaib for strike three. But when Brinkmeyer took a low pitch for ball four to force in a run, the game was over.
Loucks pitched a five-inning shutout over Fargo to start the tournament and came in Saturday night to get the final out after Lechien’s no-hitter was broken up after 6 2/3 innings. But Loucks wasn’t at his sharpest on Sunday. He gave up six earned runs and eight hits, with seven unintentional walks and four strikeouts.
“I felt like I had good stuff, but I felt like I could’ve been better. I mean, that’s not a championship game performance,” Loucks said. “I know it went down neck to neck, but I know I left a lot of pitches up that they hit, and that’s what cost us.”
A three-run second for the Blues gave them the upper hand early. Remington Pinick and Brian Keisler led off the second with back-to-back walks, and Flanagin squibbed a one-out dribbler down the third base line, beating the throw for an infield hit to load the bases. Lechien then lofted a pop fly to shallow left, but after a long run to the ball, left fielder Brinkmeyer dropped it, allowing Pinick to score. The top of the Blues’ order then did its job, as Maas and Matt Fry drew back-to-back bases-loaded walks to bring home two more runs.
Ballwin scored a run in the third on an RBI double by Josh Horn, then put together its four-run fourth on three hits and two walks to go up 5-3. The Blues answered in the fifth with three more to retake the lead; Loucks singled home Ethan Hall, and Thomas Lowe grounded a single back through the middle with men on second and third to bring home the tying and lead runs.
“We were having fun there at the beginning, and some things didn’t go our way, and we got stiff and tight,” Cook said. “We loosened back up there after a few innings of being stiff. It’s a championship game — you can’t ask for anything more than a (7-6) ballgame, and we’re gonna come out fired up and ready to play, and go from there.”
Considering the Blues had been crediting their success in the tournament to staying loose, they’d be best served to bring that mentality to today’s winner-take-all game.
“If we don’t, then we’re probably gonna get blown out of the water,” Loucks said. “So we’ve gotta come out, we’ve just gotta be ready, gotta be fired up, gotta have a little anger. We’ve just gotta come out with some fire in our bellies and go out and get it.”
Fry was scheduled to start on the mound for Emporia in today’s game.
Sunday at Soden’s Grove
Ballwin 7, Emporia 6
Emporia 030 030 0 — 6 8 1
Ballwin 001 401 1 — 7 8 3
WP — Graf. LP — Loucks.
2B — EMP: Fry.