When the Festus Post 253 AAA baseball team gets runners on base, they’re not just aggressive, they’re downright greedy.
Festus only needed six hits and had just as many stolen bases when it shut out Kirkwood Post 156 5-0 in the Zone 4 American Legion championship at the Ballwin Athletic Association on Sunday. The District 13 champions, Post 253 swept zone opponents in three games by a combined score of 12-3. It was the fifth straight Festus victory.
Post 253 travels to Sedalia to compete in the state tournament. Festus opens tonight at 8 p.m. against the Zone 1 champion Jefferson City Post 5. The state final is on Sunday at 1 p.m. The winner is one step away from playing in the World Series.
Washington Post 218 will host the Mid-South Regional Tournament on Aug. 6-10.
The winner advances to the World Series at Keeter Stadium in Shelby, N.C. on Aug. 14-19. Festus last reached the World Series in 2010 under then manager Zac Bone, who is the head coach at Jefferson College.
Many of the Post 253 players were selected all-conference in the Jefferson County Activities Association this spring and Brennan Ervin (St. Pius X) and Brady Nolen (Festus High) were on the all-state team. Assembling a group of talented players doesn’t guarantee victories, however, and Festus was 5-5 in mid-June.
But the team that crushed De Soto SMCI 11-1 to win the District 13 title is benefiting from top-rate pitching and defense to go along with their opportunistic offense.
“This is one of those groups that even if it’s not their best game, they’re going to find a way to win,” said Post 253 manager Alec Kisena, who’s in his second year. “They’re going to put one or two innings together that allows them to win baseball games and that’s what they did in this tournament.
“It’s not even the defensive plays that are the big part. It’s the base running. We run the bases hard and it’s run us into a few outs, but I told our guys early I’d rather be aggressive than die being complacent.”
After losing to Festus 4-1 in the zone opener, Post 156 had to beat Post 253 Sunday to force a winner-take-all second meeting, but they couldn’t solve starting righthander Tanner Duncan. The JCAA small-schools MVP, Duncan (Herculaneum 2026) fired a three-hit, complete-game shutout and ended it with a strikeout.
“I filled it (strike zone) up more than usual. I was feeling the curveball,” Duncan said. “I had a good feel for my off-speed pitch, threw strikes and let my defense work.”
“Tanner Duncan has that dog mentality, like Brennan Ervin was (Saturday),” Kisena said. “They’re just gamers. They know what winning and good pitching looks like.”
Teddy Clanton started on the mound for Kirkwood and allowed four hits and one earned run in four innings. Devin Black was Clanton’s first batter and Black ended up at third base after he bunted, and Clanton fielded the ball and threw wild to first base for a two-base error. Duncan was the next batter and his ground ball to third base turned into an error and Black made it 1-0.
Duncan retired the first 10 batters he faced, but in the fourth, Kirkwood put runners on with a double and a hit batter. Duncan got out of the frame holding on to a 1-0 lead.
With one out in the bottom of the fourth, Nolan Eisenbeis (Crystal City 2025) singled and promptly stole second. Eisenbeis, the all-conference first team catcher headed to Jefferson College, went to third after tagging up on a fly out. With Cooper Schilly (Festus 2027) at the plate, Eisenbeis broke for home and stole it to give 253 a 2-0 edge.
“On the second pitch of that at-bat, I told (Kisena) he’s (Clanton) taking his time in the windup, let’s take home,” Eisenbeis said. “As I took off, we yelled at Coop (Schilly), ‘Don’t swing! Don’t swing!’”
“It was a big momentum shift and something we could take advantage of,” Kisena said. “Luckily, he got his hand in there (home plate) and we rolled from there.”
Kirkwood had two runners in scoring position in the fifth but couldn’t push them across. Festus sewed up the win by scoring three runs in the sixth. First baseman Mason Schirmer, who made a brilliant diving stop for an out on defense, singled to lead off the frame and Eisenbeis and Ervin walked to load the bases. A Schilly ground out and Gunnar Hosay (St. Pius X 2025) sac fly doubled the lead to 4-0 and Schilly made it 5-0 when he scored on a wild pitch by reliever Drew Black, who allowed two hits and walks and three runs in his two innings.
In the first zone win against Kirkwood, Schirmer struck out 13 and gave up three hits and no runs in his 5 1/3 innings. Devin Black allowed two hits and a run in 1 1/3. Post 156 out-hit Festus 5-4.
Post 253 trailed the Jackson Tribe 2-0 in the semifinals but scored three runs in the fifth and hung on for a 3-2 win. On the mound, Ervin was a little wild with six walks, but he went 6 2/3 before Devin Black got the final out. In the fifth, Clayton Anderson had an RBI single and Black and Schirmer doubled.
“I think this team’s talent and focus is definitely World Series worth,” Kisena said.
“It’s all about who gets hot and stays together. All the bad teams have been weeded out,” Eisenbeis said.