One crushing inning was all it took.
An Emporia A-16 Blue team that had plenty already stacked against it before it took the field, got off to a start that could scarcely have been worse in Monday morning’s Regional championship game.
There were two errors, a walk, some hard hitting by Ballwin (Mo.) Post 611 and — perhaps most deflating — a two-run infield single. Less important, but properly symbolic, was the fact that two simple catcher-to-pitcher throwbacks in the inning were well off-line, with the ball hitting the turf each time.
The Blues were four runs in the hole before they ever stepped in the batter’s box — not the ideal place to be when facing a team that’s lost just thrice all summer. And it wasn’t a hole Emporia could dig itself out of, as Ballwin came out of the loser’s bracket to take the Mid-States Class A Regional title with a deciding 6-1 win at Soden’s Grove.
“These guys played their hearts out the last week,” Emporia manager Jerry Cook said. “They came up fired up, and we did all we could do, minus a few key hits.”
The Blues did miss a couple of opportunities, leaving eight runners on base. But unlike the other two tournament games these two teams played — a 1-0 win for the Blues on Saturday, and a 7-6 victory by Ballwin in Sunday’s first championship game — this one was never close.
Emporia’s pitching and defense was exemplary in the Blues’ three tournament wins that got them to Sunday’s first championship game — especially Saturday night, when Brett Lechien came one out away from a no-hitter and Emporia ended Ballwin’s lofty 28-game winning streak.
But after Sunday’s loss, in which Jacob Loucks went the distance on the mound, Cook knew the Blues’ frontline pitchers would have little or no availability for Monday. He also knew he wouldn’t have one of his best position players in shortstop and leadoff man Dusty Maas, who was attending a camp at Wichita State.
Cook gave Matt Fry the ball Monday, and Fry responded by throwing four straight scoreless innings, at one point retiring nine straight batters. Unfortunately, all of that came after a disastrous first inning for Emporia.
With one out, Drew Gress reached on an error, and Nick Rumping followed with a gap shot to left center for a double. Brian Graf grounded out to second to score one run, and Jared Brinkmeyer drove home a run with a single. Two batters later, with the bases loaded, Patrick Judge chopped one over the pitcher’s mound. Ethan Hall ranged from second to catch up with it behind the bag and made an off-balance, late throw to first. Jordan Soaib scored easily from third, and then Brinkmeyer charged in from second, sliding in ahead of catcher Remington Pinick’s tag to score two runs on the play and make it 4-0.
Fry went on to put up zeroes for four straight innings before giving up an RBI double by Judge in the sixth. After Ballwin got two on to start off the seventh on a walk and an error, Fry was pulled in favor of Lechien, and Ballwin added another run on a sacrifice fly by Rumping.
“I felt pretty good,” Fry said. “I was nervous, like usual though, but (my) stuff was doing pretty well. Unfortunately, it was hot out, and (I) got tired quickly, lost a lot of it.”
“He did a phenomenal job,” Cook said. “He hasn’t pitched in awhile, and for not pitching as much as he has, he did a great job today.”
The Blues managed just seven scattered hits against Ballwin starter Drue Bravo, finally getting on the board in the sixth when Nate Flanagin’s double scored Brian Keisler. Only in one inning, the fifth, did they string together two hits.
That first inning may have seemed demoralizing, but Pinick said the Blues kept their pep as they tried to claw back in it.
“We were still upbeat, trying to get back in the ballgame,” Pinick said. “We just hit the ball right at people, couldn’t get that key hit ever in the game. And any time we’d get a runner in scoring position, somebody’d hit the ball hard, and it’d be right at somebody.”
The bottom of the fourth brought fleeting promise for the Blues. After Pinick reached on an error and Keisler singled to put runners at first and second with one out, Thomas Lowe lined a shot down the left field line that was foul by not more than a couple of inches. A fair ball would have scored at least one run; instead, Lowe struck out swinging on the next pitch, and Bravo then K’d Flanagin to end the inning.
Bravo went all the way, walking one batter and striking out four. After Pinick grounded to third for the final out, Ballwin (34-3) tossed gloves into the air and ran to the mound for a dogpile.
Ballwin manager Guy Werre said his team showed resiliency in coming back from Saturday’s loss to the Blues to beat them twice and win it all.
“We were on a 28-game winning streak, and Emporia is a strong team, and we knew it,” Werre said. “And they came out ready to play. So we had to play a tight game, and they beat us fair and square, but I think it was a wake-up call for us.”
The Blues finished 27-15 on the summer.
“We did pretty well,” Fry said. “Kind of disappointing that we didn’t show up at State, and couldn’t (win it) out here. But just try to come back, win it next year.”
“We had a little hiccup at State,” Cook said, “but Regional, we came out and showed the guys what we could do, and I just hope the guys had a great time, because I enjoyed it.”
Monday at Soden’s Grove
Ballwin 6, Emporia 1
Ballwin 400 001 1 — 6 7 3
Emporia 000 001 0 — 1 7 3
WP — Bravo. LP — Loucks.
2B — BAL: Rumping, Judge; EMP: Flanagin.
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
congradulations on a good year and you will remember all these games and certain situations, for the rest of your life.l will take any way to get into the american legion baseball hall of fame. for example if they want a bat boy, i will go in as a bat boy.
August 4, 2009 at 9:10 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )