Festus had Lee’s Summit in serious jeopardy on Friday night in the senior American Legion baseball state tournament at Liberty Park in Sedalia.
With two out in the ninth inning, Post 253’s Jaden Courtois had just cut Lee’s Summit’s lead to 4-3 with an RBI sacrifice fly and Blain Prater was hit by a pitch to reload the bases. That brought Collin Mann to the plate.
Mann, who led Post 253 this summer with a .403 batting average, battled hard to shove across the tying run and keep his team alive, working the count to 3-2 and fouling off several pitches.
But eventually he lined out to second base to end the game and a great 2017 season for Festus.
“That’s how it went this weekend, we hit some balls hard but didn’t get the results we wanted,” said Festus manager Zac Bone, who guided Post 253 to a record of 27-11 and district and zone championships in his sixth season at the helm.
Festus, owner of five previous state titles (1996, 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2011) beat Lee’s Summit 7-5 on July 27 in the opening round of the tournament, which included Jefferson City Post 5 and Blue Springs. But Lee’s Summit won three straight games after that, only to fall to Jefferson City 13-3 in the ultimate championship game Saturday night. It’s Jeff City’s second state title in the last three years.
“We went in thinking we had a really good shot at winning (state),” Bone said. “It just didn’t work out. It’s probably the most competitive state tournament, from top to bottom, I can remember. Whoever won it was going to have to play really well. We feel good about how we competed.”
After the first-round win against Lee’s Summit, Festus had won 10 straight games. Post 253 swept through the District 13 and Zone 4 tournaments without a loss. Andrew Douglas and Blain Prater were chewing up eight and nine innings per start on the mound and Donovan McDonough was the winning pitcher for Festus in two championship games – the district final against Bonne Terre and at zone against Cape Girardeau.
Prater pitched six and two-thirds innings and was the winning pitcher in the state opener against Lee’s Summit. Douglas pitched an inning and two-thirds and Brennan Pryor earned the one-inning save. Cameron Beck and Matt Rosen each had RBI doubles in the victory, which advanced Festus to Friday’s semifinal against Jeff City, another tradition-rich Legion club.
Douglas, coming in 8-0 on the season, started and picked up where he left off the day before, locking into a tight battle with Post 5 starter Brandon Williams. The home plate umpire was helping both hurlers by calling strikes on the tip of the outside corner.
The first two Festus batters, Courtois and Prater, reached safely in the bottom of the first inning. But Courtois was erased when Prater reached on a fielder’s choice, and after Prater stole second and reached third on a groundout, Williams got a fly-ball out to end the inning.
Post 253 didn’t waste its opportunity in the second and took a 2-0 lead. JC right fielder Thomas Verslues made a diving catch for the first out, but then Williams gave up a single to Sean McDowell and walked Pryor. Facing an 0-2 count with two outs, Matt Rosen delivered a two-run single.
“We were lucky the wind was blowing in today, because on a couple of those, if the wind’s blowing out, those balls are over our outfielder’s heads,” Jefferson City manager Curt Vaughan said.
The two teams traded zeroes on the scoreboard for the next four innings. Douglas’ pitch count reached 85 through seven innings.
With one out in the Jefferson City seventh, Douglas gave up a single to Hayden Hirschvogel and a double to Kade Franks. Hirschvogel scored on a groundout and Franks came home on a wild pitch to tie the game 2-2.
Williams gave up a leadoff double to McDowell in the seventh and was relieved by Drew Boessen, who struck out the next two Festus batters before walking Rosen. Boessen ended the rally and the inning with a fly ball out.
Douglas retired Post 5 in order in the eighth with the game still knotted 2-2. Boessen walked Prater to start the bottom half and it appeared more late-inning magic was in the works for Festus when Zac Meyer was intentionally walked with only one out. But Beck lined out to second base and Prater was doubled off second for an abrupt end to the threat.
With Douglas still on the mound, Johnny Backes (walk) and Jason Rackers (error) reached safely to start the ninth. Both scored on Franks’ double and Post 5 led 4-2. Franks came in to score on a single by Verslues for the final JC tally.
“Andrew competed as hard as anyone I’ve seen,” Bone said. “The competitiveness has always been there. We hand him the ball regardless of the situation.”
Festus had fought back from larger deficits than three runs to win games this summer. Boessen walked McDowell to start the ninth and gave up a base hit to Pryor to rekindle hopes for a comeback. But Chandler Dix lined into the second Post 253 double play in as many innings and Boessen struck out Rosen to end the game.
Festus stranded eight base runners.
“Williams didn’t have a lot of starts this year and we had Boessen out of the bullpen and we feel very comfortable bringing him into a tie game,” Vaughan said.
Jefferson City advances to the Legion Mid-South Regional tournament this week in New Orleans, along with the state champions from Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas. The winner will move on to the Legion World Series Aug. 10-15 in Shelby, N.C.