But after winning four consecutive Jefferson County Activities Association small-schools championships, the Lancers lost 9-6 to Jefferson this spring and the Blue Jays went on to win the conference crown. The much-anticipated rematch for a district title never materialized after St. Pius and Jefferson both lost in the Class 3 District 3 semifinals.
When the dust settled on the 2019 campaign, St. Pius’ Eli Dale was named the small-schools player of the year for the second straight season and Jefferson’s Robert Kuehnle was named the conference coach of the year. Dale was one of five players from the 17-3 Lancers to be voted onto the first team.
Dale will attend Kansas State University this fall on a baseball scholarship. He played shortstop for St. Pius and was its offensive leader after batting .547 with 17 extra-base hits and a team-leading 30 RBIs. On the mound, Dale was used primarily as a reliever and he posted a 1.24 ERA in 17 innings.
In a 9-8 win over Perryville, a large-schools division team on May 3, Dale was 3-for-4 with a triple, RBI and two runs scored and struck out six Pirates in four innings on the mound. In a 3-2 victory at Ste. Genevieve on April 5, Dale pitched an inning of scoreless relief to earn a save.
“He’s an outstanding baseball player. When you get a scholarship to Kansas State, you’re doing something right,” said Jerry Woods, who stepped down as the Lancers head coach this spring. “It’s hard to deny the talent that he had. The (JCAA small-schools) coaches made the right decision. We have some quality coaches and they recognize talent when they see it.”
Being selected to the first team is nothing new for St. Pius pitcher Jeremy Isenman, who received the honor for the third straight season. He will attend Maryville University this fall and play for former Jefferson College coach Pat Evers.
Over the past three springs, Isenman posted a record of 23-4 with 201 strikeouts. He surrendered only 11 earned runs in that span.
Isenman pitched through injuries the past two seasons. In the April 5 win over Ste. Genevieve, he “tweaked” something, but kept playing until he hit the wall against Windsor a couple of weeks later. Isenman lasted just one inning against the Owls and he didn’t pitch again this season.
“We started him off slow this year and he’s a workhorse on the mound,” Woods said. “He’s one of the smartest pitchers I’ve ever coached. We pitched him in all of the big games. After he battled through the first inning (against Windsor) he came to the dugout and said, ‘Coach, I’m done.’ We thought we had enough pitching to get us through (districts). You can’t blame injuries. They’re part of the game. We’re a different team without him on the mound.”
St. Pius’ Kaleb Schweigert made the first team after a strong senior season at third base and at the plate. Schweigert had never even been honorable mention until this year. Schweigert entered his senior year in the best shape of his career and batted .422 with seven doubles. (See accompanying story about Schweigert).
Fellow senior center fielder Tyler Hedtkamp earned first-team honors for the second straight season. Combining with Dale at shortstop and honorable mention catcher Noah Lampros behind the plate, the Lancers were strong down the middle of their defense. Hedtkamp batted cleanup and raised his batting average from .328 as a junior to .400 this year.
“Tyler’s a smart hitter, super fast and covers a lot of ground,” Woods said.
Dustin Burch was the fifth Lancer to be voted onto the league’s first team. A second-time first-team pick, Burch, another senior, helped Hedtkamp lock down the outfield playing in left. Nursing a hamstring injury at the end of this season, Burch saw his batting average fall from .478 in 2018 to .344 this year, but he batted leadoff for the second year in a row and had 11 extra-base hits and 17 RBIs to go with seven stolen bases. He’ll play running back at William Jewell College in Liberty.
“He’s not a shy kid. He will talk, motivate, bark and growl and do what is needed to fire up his teammates,” Woods said. “He led our team in pregame prayer before every game.”
Woods resigned as the school’s football coach as well. He said he’s going to devote more time to taking care of his mother, who lives in Jackson.
“It’s the right decision. You’ve got to sacrifice something,” Woods said. “This is the right time to give up sports for the family.”
When Jefferson’s Andrew Graves opted to play baseball this spring instead of track, he added a dimension the Blue Jays lacked: speed. The most talented football player in school history was still recovering from knee surgery in 2018 when he decided to run the 100-meter dash instead of tracking down fly balls in center field.
Kuehnle called Graves’ addition this year a “game changer” for the Blue Jays, who finished 18-4 after losing to Herculaneum 2-1 in the district semifinals.
“He was a big pickup for us. He hit the ball extremely well,” Kuehnle said. “Most of the time he connected. He’s a home run threat. He hit two against Saxony in one inning. His speed on the bases was dangerous. Whenever he’d get a great jump, you couldn’t throw him out.”
Graves batted .391 in 76 plate appearances and swiped nine bases. In the conference-clinching win against St. Pius, Graves broke open a 6-6 game with a three-run double. He also made a run-saving catch in the outfield.
“His speed in center, the way he could track fly balls, was a game changer,” Kuehnle said. “Batters would scratch their heads or tip their helmet the way he caught the ball. Eli Dale hit the ball into the gap and after Andrew made the catch, Eli tipped his cap to him. We had a talk with our other outfielders; when the ball was hit in the outfield, they knew Andrew would have it.”
One of two sophomores on the first team, Colby Ott’s repeat gives him a shot of earning the honor all four years of his high school career. The shortstop led Jefferson with 17 stolen bases. He also led them in batting average (.459) and RBIs (25). In a 17-13 win over Festus this season, Ott had four hits (two doubles) and six RBIs.
“What set’s Colby up is he’s just fluid and his baseball IQ is extremely high,” Kuehnle said. “He knows when to use the backhand or dive (at shortstop). There were some plays he made in the hole where he’d pop up Derek Jeter-style and throw the guy out at first.
“Colby was a great hitter. He crushed baseballs for us all year. I really liked his approach. He’d jump on first-pitch fastballs until pitchers figured it out and started to throw him curveballs.”
Playing shortstop, first and third and all three outfield positions as well as pitching, Grandview senior Colton McAnally was the ideal choice for first-team utility player. McAnally, second team there last year, spent a good deal of time as a junior battling injuries, and this year wasn’t much different after he hurt a hamstring in a game on April 12. The Eagles fell to 0-9 that day, but finished 4-4-1 the rest of the way.
McAnally, a four-year starter, was second on his team in batting with a .436 average and was first with seven doubles. Admittedly not being comfortable on the mound, McAnally still pitched 19 innings for the Eagles.
After hurting the hamstring, McAnally didn’t practice a lot and gradually regained some of his mobility by the end of the year.
“He would have had better numbers (at the plate) but all he could do was hobble to first,” Grandview head coach Jeff Ketcherside said. “If he hit what should have been a double or triple, he could only get a single. He was hobbling from base to base.
“He’s a quiet kid who leads by example. He knew that if we were going to be able to compete, he had to play. We were a different team with him batting third in the lineup.”
Herculaneum’s Jordan Duncan was the only small-schools player to occupy two positions on the first team. One of the most talented arms to come through the league in years, Duncan went 6-4 with an ERA of 1.37, striking out 86 batters in 56 1/3 innings. Smooth as silk at shortstop, Duncan can also handle the bat. He hit .429 and struck out just 13 times in 79 plate appearances. Duncan has been a first-team infielder all three years at Herky, which finished 12-10-3 after losing to West County in the Class 3 District 3 championship.
“He’s a difference maker. I say this over and over, but the four years before he got here, we won 24 games. In the three years he’s been here, we’ve won 38,” Herculaneum head coach Zac Bone said. “He’s the type of kid who loves the game. He plays football and basketball too and he takes a lot of the burden on himself. I couldn’t be more proud of him as a player and the young man he is.”
Duncan will have his battery mate back next season. Cole Meyer is this year’s small-schools first-team catcher and will be a junior this fall. After batting .260 last year, Meyer checked in at .424 this spring and he doubled his RBI production from 10 to 20.
“For my money, he’s the best catch-throw guy around,” Bone said. “You can’t really overvalue having a great catcher behind the plate. He shuts down running games. He’s come a long way as a blocker and he’s a smart baseball kid. He had a huge district tournament for us. Down the stretch, when we needed him, he was very good.”