Many high school baseball players dream of one day playing in Omaha, Neb., the site of the NCAA men’s College World Series.
That wish came true for the De Soto SMCI Senior (AAA) American Legion baseball team, which played in a 44-team tournament, the Battle of Omaha, June 23-26.
“We like to get these (tournaments) in to help build up that team camaraderie and chemistry,” De Soto SMCI manager Zachary Lynn said. “I’ve had a couple of players whose parents took them down to the College World Series. They were able to see the actual game in person, but for the most part, we've just been kind of taking in some of the sights here in Lincoln and Omaha.”
Teams from around the country, including the Jefferson County Blazers, began pool play at high schools throughout Omaha. The Blazers compete in the St. Louis Amateur Baseball Association.
De Soto was assigned to a pool at Skutt Catholic High School featuring Skutt (Neb.), Moorhead (Minn.), Adrian (Mich.), Byrd (La.) and LNE (Neb.). Teams faced each other one time to determine a pool winner, which then advanced to the championship round on June 27.
SMCI finished pool play with a 1-4 record, magnifying its offensive struggles but also revealing some pitching prowess. De Soto was outscored 21-8 (15 of the runs earned) in the four losses – despite often outhitting their opponents – and was shut out by Skutt and Moorhead.
SMCI looked like it was on its way to a victory over LNE in the opening game on Thursday, staking out a 3-2 lead in the sixth inning before LNE plated two runs in the bottom half of the sixth to win 4-3. De Soto outhit LNE by one and had runners on second and third with one out in the seventh but couldn’t tie the game.
De Soto bounced back on Friday behind Michael Schmitt’s 6.1 innings of one-run ball and a walk-off sacrifice fly from Boynton in the bottom of the seventh to knock off Byrd 2-1.
“Michael Schmitt threw a gem of a game,” Lynn said. “He had command issues and he walked a lot of guys, but he worked out some tough situations and gave us a chance to win a ballgame.”
Kyle Turman took the mound for the third tournament game against Skutt but lasted only two outs into the second inning after yielding five runs (one earned). SMCI never countered despite having more hits and baserunners than Skutt in the 5-0 defeat.
The scoreless streak continued against Moorhead in the next game as De Soto batters struck out 11 times and only mustered one hit in a 6-0 whitewashing. The shutout extended SMCI’s scoreless stretch to 14 innings.
De Soto broke through in the first inning of the fifth game against Adrain, jumping out to a 2-0 lead behind Richard Wiethop’s two-run double. But the lead evaporated one inning later as Adrian scored four runs in the second.
SMCI added one run in the bottom of the fifth but suffered a 6-3 loss despite having a 9-7 edge on hits.
A season of streaks
De Soto began its season by splitting its first six games before facing Festus Post 253 for a midweek game June 9.
Nate Moore dominated the De Soto lineup for Post 253, throwing a no-hitter while striking out 14 batters and walking one in a 4-0 victory.
From June 11-18, SMCI dropped seven consecutive games, six of them by three runs or less. The offense scored 21 runs over the stretch, giving the pitching staff an average of three runs per game to work with.
De Soto’s pitchers gave up 35 runs, but only 18 of them earned as the defense sprang too many leaks.
“That stretch right there pretty much came down to the little things,” Lynn said. “We weren’t making the easy plays. We weren’t hustling out pop flies or ground balls. That hurt us pretty bad.”
The losing skid dropped De Soto to 3-11 heading into the SEMO Classic in Sikeston.
“We go 0-3 to start the tournament (and) things are looking a little bleak for us,” Lynn said. “That’s when we got together as a team and tried to settle them down a bit to try to keep the spirits up because we were on an eight-game losing streak. It’s really hard to keep guys focused, working as a team, when those kinds of situations are happening.”
The team meeting paid off, as SMCI bounced back in a big way. Levi Lalonde began the turnaround by pitching a no-hitter in a 10-0 win over Madisonville on June 18. De Soto overcame a 4-0 deficit against Maysfield the following day behind Jacob Foster, who brought home two runs on a go-ahead single in the fifth inning to seal a 6-4 victory.
Those wins took SMCI to the championship series, needing to defeat Sikeston twice to win the title.
Zach Reynolds stepped up to the challenge in game one, throwing a complete-game shutout in a 4-0 win.
“We had Zach Reynolds go up there, who’s not typically a starter, and he (throws) a complete-game shutout,” Lynn said. “All he did was pound the strike zone to force them to swing the bat, and they were swinging and missing. So, that was huge for us.”
In the second game, the bats came alive. After falling behind 3-1 early, De Soto rallied for eight unanswered runs, including seven in the fifth and sixth innings, to shock the host club and take the championship. Foster tossed a complete game, allowing three runs in six innings.
In its next game, SMCI’s Eli Epley limited Bonne Terre to one hit and no runs while his teammates scored 10 on June 20.
The five-game winning streak was snapped the next night, as Bonne Terre rebounded for a 3-2 win.
Need clutch hitting
The long weekend in Omaha left SMCI with a 9-16 ledger for the season and searching for how to jump-start the offense.
De Soto came home with a .202 team batting average and 170 strikeouts through 25 games.
“What really needs to change for us is our approach,” Lynn said. “We need to start being more aggressive and attacking that fastball early in counts. And we need to come (through) with runners on base.”
The team has suffered 11 losses by three runs or less, so Lynn said the time to turn around the offense is now.
“I think these late losses are going to make us a better team late in games, when we get into those July tournaments and districts,” Lynn said. “It’s going to put us in a good situation to be able to finish out a ballgame, because we've had that pressure on us.”
A District 13 rematch against Festus is set for today (June 30) in De Soto at 5:30 p.m.