Broncos oust Tigers; Paola takes Regional

Fort Scott High’s baseball season came to a premature end at Dave Regan Stadium when third-seeded Spring Hill jumped out to an early lead in the second semifinal game of the Fort Scott Class 4A-Division I Regional Tournament and the Tigers were unable to recover in a 7-3 loss.

Top-seeded Paola won the first semifinal over Louisburg, 12-2 in five innings, and then beat Spring Hill in a strange championship game, 14-9, to advance to the Class 4A-Division I State Tournament at Emporia next week. Spring Hill finished 13-8 and Fort Scott 14-7.

Paola scored 6 runs in the bottom of the first inning of the first semifinal and took advantage of shaky Louisburg pitching. The Panthers had 12 hits and were also issued 10 walks.

Wyatt Johnson was 3 for 4 for the Panthers while Michael Daggett was 3 for 3, Drew Smith was 2 for 3 and Evan Pueser went 2 for 2. Daggett also drove in 3 runs, including 2 on a single that brought the run rule into effect in the bottom of the fifth.

Daggett was also the winning pitcher, allowing 2 runs on 9 hits and 1 walk while striking out 6 over the first 4 1/3 innings.

Beckett Rasmussen was 3 for 3 for Louisburg (7-14) while Garrett Caldwell and Garrett Harding were each 2 for 3.

Spring Hill led the second semifinal 5-0 after 2 1/2 innings. The Tigers got on the board in the bottom of the third despite Louisburg turning a double play to give Fort Scott a bases-empty-with-2-out situation.

Alec Michaud was hit by a pitch. Then Ty Gorman hit a single to deep right-center with Michaud, able to break early since there were two out, scoring from first on the play. Gorman moved to third on Brady Master’s single to center and scored on a passed ball. Masters moved up to third on the passed ball and Matt Campbell hustled out a ground ball for a hit. But the Tigers were unable to produce any more runs.

Spring Hill added 2 more in the top of the fourth to make it 7-2.

The Tigers tried to rally in the bottom of the seventh. Gunnar Brown singled to lead things off as he beat the throw on an infield bouncer. Brody Bowles also got a hit. Then Brown drew a pickoff throw that went into center field, allowing him to reach third and Bowles to get to second.

With one out, Gorman hit a fly ball. It was caught but Brown was able to score and Bowles moved to third. However, a groundout to shortstop ended the game.

Gorman, Campbell and Bowles had 2 hits each for the Tigers. Cody Lucas, Caleb Pahl and Zade Barker had 3 hits each for the Broncos.

Lucas pitched four full innings, allowing 2 runs on 5 hits and a walk while striking out 3. Bear Gardner came on in the fifth and allowed an unearned run one hit and a walk with a strikeout to earn the save.

Both finalists were short on pitching and it showed as early on walks were much more frequent than hits. The two pitching staffs combined to issue 20 walks. Four Spring Hill pitchers surrendered 13 of them.

However, Paola’s Brody Mundell took to the hill with 2 out in the top of the fourth and took command. He retired nine of the 10 batters he faced, allowing a 2-out single in the top of the seventh, and didn’t give up any walks.

The Panthers trailed 9-8 when Mundell took over. But Paola scored twice in the bottom of the fourth on a hit, an error, a hit batter and a sacrifice fly. They added one more in the fifth and three in the sixth.

Luke Angermeyer was the only Panther who had more than one hit, going 2 for 3. But several of the Panthers were issued multiple walks including leadoff batter Nick Modes. He drew five walks, two of them with the bases loaded. So officially, he was zero for zero with 2 runs batted in and 2 runs scored.

Courtesy runner Garrett Williams also had no at bats but scored 4 runs as catcher Evan Pueser drew 3 walks and had a hit in the sixth inning.

Paola will be in the State Tournament for the second time in three seasons. The tournament will be held May 24 and 25.