Emporia A-16 Blue coach Jerry Cook was consistent in his approach to the Mike’s Classic all weekend long: for the Blues, the importance of winning took a backseat to the experience of playing older teams and preparing for state.
Still, for the Blues’ confidence — for a team that’s been used to winning all summer long — salvaging at least one win was important. And the Blues did that in Saturday’s fifth-place game at Soden’s Grove, coming back from a 7-5 deficit with a five-run top of the fourth and going on to beat Andover 14-8.
The Blues finished 1-3 at the tournament — earlier Saturday, they lost to the Emporia AAA squad 14-5 in the first round of bracket play — but Cook hopes they still took something valuable away from the weekend. The answer to what they might’ve gained wasn’t immediately evident to the coach following Emporia’s fifth-place game win.
“Well, it’s too soon to tell,” Cook said. “I think these guys kind of got down on themselves because they’re used to winning. They’re not used to coming out and winning one of four games. That’s tough, but experience coming out, seeing guys you haven’t seen before... these AAA guys coming out, (you) throw a mistake, leave a belt-high fastball, they’re just not gonna hit it, they’re gonna hit it for power. And that’s the thing that I think we’ve learned a lot this year.”
Though Saturday’s win over Andover ended up a come-from-behind victory for Emporia, the Blues actually got off to a big lead, preceding their five-run fifth with a five-run first. Nate Flanagin had an RBI single and Brian Keisler and Dusty Maas each drew RBI bases on balls during a first-inning round in which the Blues sent 11 hitters to the plate and drew five walks and a hit batter. But Andover came back with seven runs in its first two times up to erase that 5-0 deficit.
With the Blues trailing 7-6, Ethan Hall got Emporia started in the top of the fourth with a single up the middle, reached third on a sacrifice bunt and an error, then scored when Ryan Huth lined a single back through the middle to tie the game. Brett Lechien and Maas drew walks, with the latter a bases-loaded freebie forcing in the go-ahead run, and James Rodriguez got plunked to make it 9-7. Matt Fry stroked a bad-hop grounder to second base for an error, which brought home two more runs.
In the top of the sixth, Lechien and Rodriguez walked, and Fry brought home Lechien with a double to deep left center. Hall walked to load the bases, and Keisler lined a single down the left field line to plate two runs and make it 14-8.
“We should’ve (done) a little better the previous games of hitting, making plays and all that,” said Keisler, who had three RBIs. “But it was good to get at least one win out of this tournament.”
Remington Pinick started the game, but Hall relieved him after just 1 2/3 innings and ended up getting the win. The Blues got a crucial defensive play from Lechien while still trailing in the bottom of the third. With the bases loaded, Lechien sprinted in on a shallow fly by Troy Klaasen and dove to make the catch, and no Andover runners advanced. A grounder to Maas at short ended the inning.
State play begins in two weekends, and if the Blues learned something vital from this tournament, that’s when it will need to show up.
“Both mornings, we didn’t come up fired up,” Cook said. “We’re just not used to playing in the morning; that’s something we’re gonna have to work on. Afternoon games were a lot better. Today, second game, we came up fired up, had some players make some plays, pitchers did their job. Pretty good job overall.”