The Willard Tigers ran into the No. 4-ranked team in Class 5 on Wednesday. The Jeff City Jays knocked off Willard 5-2 in the sectional round on the Missouri Southern baseball field in Joplin, ending their season.
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Willard got off to a hot start, retiring the first four batters of the game and getting on the board 1-0 in the first inning. Senior Hunter Whiteley smacked an RBI-double to break the scoring seal on the game. Then in the third inning, senior Garyn Stewart had an RBI-double of his own which tied the game 2-2. But that’s all the Tigers were able to produce on offense.
Senior Dalton Morrow started the game on the mound for Willard but only completed three innings of work. With two outs in the third, Jeff City pitcher Jackson “J.T.” Bohlken hit a single and drove in two runs for the Jays. Morrow finished the inning but that would the end of his day on the mound.
In fact, the Tigers used four pitchers in the game, including ace Kyle Smith who pitched in the district title game.
“Dalton just didn’t have very good stuff,” said Willard coach Scott McGee. “Dalton was really fatigued early. I think he’s coming down with a little bit of an illness right now. So at that point, we were just trying to piece it together. We were trying not to use Kyle because if we won today, we were going to throw him tomorrow. And so that’s kind of just what we had to do.”
Bohlken, who got Jeff City on the board with his bat, pitched all seven innings for the Jays. He surrendered nine hits, two walks and had two strike outs. Willard got to Bohlken early, but the senior got better as the game went on.
“I have to give it to the guys in the defense,” said Bohlken. “They made some really good plays behind me which kind of helped me and motivated the team to do better… I always try to go the whole game and I’m glad it worked out like that. We played really well.”
Willard constantly had runners on, but had trouble bringing them in to score.
“I thought we threatened a lot,” said McGee. “We did some good things, we just never could get that big break. We kind of had a scoring opportunity in the first that we only got one run, but maybe should have had a few more… those kinds of things hurt you, but I’m proud of the season we’ve put together and today, Jeff City just out played us.”
“I want to give a big shout out to Willard,” said Jeff City coach Brian Ash, “because they’re a tough opponent. They’re hard to prepare for. They’ve got some good arms, they do a lot of little things right, small ball, they run, so they’re always a scary team to prepare for.”
The Tigers and Jays were within one run of each other for nearly the game until the top of the seventh inning. Jeff City added two insurance runs, making the score 5-2 and making it much more difficult for Willard to come back.
“I saw a team that I’ve seen all year,” said Ash. “Pitch it, play defense and get timely hitting and we compete from the first pitch to the last out. So I didn’t expect anything different [today].”
Coach McGee told his team to be proud of the season they’ve had and to be proud of what the seniors accomplished.
“Not many teams have won four districts in the last five years and these guys have been a part of a lot of that. And because of that, we’re really proud of this group of kids. They handled adversity, they were mature. We had a group of really good people. And if you have good people, things tend to work out for you. I’m excited about the group of kids that we’re sending off after high school.”
Willard finishes their season 23-10. Jeff City (26-6) will advance to play Nixa (15-18) in the quarterfinal round on Thursday, May 26. Nixa has been on an incredible streak, beating the likes of Glendale, Ozark, Kickapoo and Webb City in their last four games despite having a losing record overall. They’ll have their hands full with the Jays on Thursday.
“[Nixa is] a team that’s as hot as anybody in the state,” said Ash. “Coach Greenwood is a guy that I’ve respected since I’ve been coaching and since I’ve known him, so he does a tremendous job with his team and his program. They compete like nobody’s business and we’re going to have to match that intensity.”
Jeff City – 0 – 0 – 2 – 0 – 0 – 1 – 2 — 5
Willard – 1 – 0 – 1 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 — 2
