Granite City had a runner at third base and two outs in the sixth inning of the St. Louis Amateur Baseball Association championship when the home plate umpire stopped the game and ruled the Jefferson County Blazers winner by forfeit.
The Blazers won the game 4-2 and their first SLABA title since 2018 after winning the best-of-3 series in three games. The series was played July 20-22 at Lindenwood University in St. Charles.
The home plate umpire had already ejected one of the Tribe coaches and a player before stopping the game. He had warned the team’s dugout for arguing calls throughout the game. Granite City still had four outs and a runner in scoring position when it forfeited the game. The incident marred what was a great series, where the Tribe won game one 1-0, and in game two JC forced a decisive game by scoring four runs in the seventh of a 4-3 win.
“It was very poor sportsmanship by their coaches,” said Ed Pottgen, who is the Blazers head coach and director of operations. “They (ejected player and coach) wouldn’t leave the dugout when the umpire told them to. It kept going on and on, and it wasn’t just this game, it was Monday’s game and Tuesday’s game. It had been building.”
GC held JC scoreless for the first 13 innings of the series. Tribe pitcher Amari Raglin twirled a six-hit complete-game shutout in game one. Blazer righthander Tyler Voss was just as good, striking out nine batters in five innings. The run he allowed was unearned. Danny Kinsey pitched two innings of scoreless relief.
In game two, GC scored three runs in the fifth, and Tribe pitcher Hayden Spudich cruised to the seventh inning with a 3-0 lead, having allowed three hits and one walk.
Instead of going silently into the night and season, the Blazers fought back until they had taken a 4-3 lead. Ethan French started the rally with a leadoff double. Skyler Johnson replaced French, the team’s catcher, at second as a courtesy runner. Stephen Stenzhorn was walked, and both runners were advanced a base on a ground out. With one out, Kinsey’s single provided JC with its first runs of the series and cut the GC lead to 3-2.
Still with one out, the Tribe infield committed an error on Rayne O’Daniell’s hard-hit ball. Next, Cooper Horvath singled to load the bases. Kannon French’s sacrifice fly plated Kinsey to tie the game, and GC made its second error of the inning on a Brody Green grounder that allowed O’Daniell to score the winning run.
“I saw a first-pitch fastball and fouled it off,” Kannon said of his sac fly at-bat. “(Spudich) threw another fastball outside, and I took it the other way to get it in the air.”
The SLABA Pitcher of the Year, Kannon French retired the Tribe in order in the seventh with two strikeouts and a ground out. Kannon pitched a complete game, fanned 10, gave up four hits and one walk and the three GC runs were unearned.
“That seventh inning was exhilarating,” Kannon said. “We were down by three (runs) going into it. We got a big double from my brother, Ethan. We got a few guys on and took the lead. In the bottom of the seventh, I had to stay collected. If I got too emotional, I knew I was going to be wild. I needed to stay calm, hit my spots and throw strikes, and I did my job.
“We hit the ball well in the first two games but couldn’t find any holes, and we found those gaps in the seventh and it really showed.”
This was Ethan’s third year with the Blazers, and Kannon’s first. The Frenchs live in Jefferson County. Kannon graduated from Lutheran South this spring, and Ethan will be a senior there this fall.
“I didn’t know many of the guys coming into the season,” Kannon said. “I knew it was a fun team, and I knew (Pottgen). Ethan played for them the last three years, and I’m glad I decided to join. It’s been amazing.”
Colton Hicks will be a senior at
Hillsboro this school year. Hicks was given the ball for the start on the mound for the Blazers in the deciding game three, and while not overpowering, he was efficient in the 5 2/3 innings the game lasted. Pottgen said Kannon was going to pitch the seventh inning had the game not been stopped.
“So we knew if we could get past this inning, we were going to win,” Pottgen said.
The Tribe took a 1-0 lead in the first inning with two singles and a sacrifice fly by Zach Symmonds. The Blazers tied the game in the bottom of the frame when Kannon led off with a single, stole second, went to third on a ground out and scored on an RBI ground out by Landen Palmer.
Hicks retired GC in order in the second, and then walked to leadoff the JC half of the inning. Johnson came in as a courtesy runner, and went to second base on a single by Jackson LaPlante. Kinsey’s perfect sac bunt down the first-base line advanced both runners. Michael Huff walked to load the bases, and with two outs, Horvath drew a bases-loaded walk to give the Blazers a 2-1 lead.
Hicks sat down the Tribe in order in the third and JC doubled its lead in the inning. Green and Palmer singled to start, and with one out Green scored on an error, and with two outs, Palmer scored on a single by Kinsey.
GC started the fourth by getting two base runners on with nobody out. With two outs, Hicks balked home a runner to make it 4-2.
With the score the same in the sixth, Hicks walked the leadoff batter, who was at third base with two outs when the game was forfeited.
The Blazers wore a patch on their shoulders this season in commemoration of Mike Sears, who died in 2025. Sears was one of the league’s founders and the director of the Blazers for many years.
“The first thing I thought of, was I wish Mike was here to see it,” Pottgen said of the championship.
“I’m a diehard Blazer guy, and the one thing I wanted to do was bring a championship for this group and I told them they’re all like family to me. The draw is the kids. Feeling their energy and excitement gives me a two-hour break of this madness world.”