The title drought is over for Mountain Grove as the baseball team brought home its first state title in a 4-1 Class 3 State Championship win over Summit Christian on Wednesday.
“It is surreal right now. It hasn’t sunk in yet. It is an amazing feeling,” Mountain Grove Head Coach Derwin McGownd said. “We are going to have some fun. We are going to enjoy the ride home and celebrate as long as we can.”
Mountain Grove jumped on Summit Christian starter William Finch right away with three first-inning runs.
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Blaine Halford got it going, as he knocked a single after going down 0-2 to Finch to open the game. A Hayden Newberry walk followed by a Brock Coffman fielder’s choice left Mountain Grove with runners on first and third with two outs. Coffman stole second and Trey Collins walked to load up the bases.
That gave Cory Allen his shot and the senior came through with another two-strike hit, as he singled up the middle to bring home two runs. Austin Williams would score yet another two-strike hit on the next at bat to bring in courtesy runner Charles Felker to make it 3-0 into the bottom of the first inning.
“(We tell them with two strikes) just make contact and put the ball in play. I think (there were) nerves a little bit (for Finch) in the beginning and we were able to take advantage and put some early runs up,” McGownd said. “Once he settled in, he threw a heck of a ballgame. I am just glad we got to him early.”
Mountain Grove would scratch across one more run in the top of the second thanks to a Halford single and steal followed by a Newberry RBI single to make it 4-0.
Coffman took the hill for Panthers and gave up one run in three innings with three strikeouts and four walks. The key to the game came in the bottom of the third. Coffman loaded the bases with three walks and two outs facing Finch.
The Mountain Grove hurler then uncorked a pitch that got to the backstop. Catcher Trey Collins hustled to the ball and fired back to a covering Coffman in time to cut down a potential run and record the third out at home.
“At that point I was trying to throw strikes. I was struggling up there, (and then) we got that big out. I knew we were destined to win it at that point,” Coffman said.
Today destiny came in the form of Alex Moore. The Mountain Grove star pitcher threw six innings yesterday and toed the rubber for the final four innings to shut down Summit Christian.
He struck out eight Eagles while recording 12 total outs and stranded all four base runners who reached.
“He was huge. 10 innings is all he was allowed and we used him for all 10 of them. That speaks to what he means to the program and what he means to us as a pitcher,” McGownd said.
In the Final Four, Moore threw 10 innings with 16 strike outs while allowing just 1 earned run on 145 pitches in less than 24 hours.
Even with the pitches piling up, there was no doubt Moore was going to get the ball in the seventh inning.
“He (Moore) wanted it. There was no doubt about it that he wanted it. We were going to go to DJ (McNew) at the end if we needed to, but he (Moore) looked at me and said ‘coach, this is mine, this is what I am here for and this is what I want’,” McGownd said.
In the final frame, Moore gave up a single and then struck out two in a row before inducing a game-ending ground out to McNew at shortstop.
“Every one of my teammates told me to go out and get it for us and I said ‘I promise I will’,” Moore said. “I gave the same thing to my team that they gave to me and that was everything.”
The championship is even sweeter for Coffman as the Panthers brought home the title on his birthday.
“It is my 18th birthday and it feels great,” Coffman said. “There is no present better. It is all I wanted for my birthday.”
Mountain Grove finishes its historic season as the Class 3 State Champions with a 25-5 record.
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