By Stephen Buus (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Ozark — Logan Thomazin was dealin’ Thursday.
The future Missouri State Bear turned in one of the most dominating performances of his baseball career, striking out 19 Greenfield Wildcats in leading the Walnut Grove Tigers to a 5-0 Class 1 state quarterfinal victory at US Ballpark, after rain washed out the game in Walnut Grove the night before.
“He was on,” said Tiger coach Trevor Bowling. “I would say this was his best outing of the year. He even threw a no-hitter against El Dorado Springs, but today, he flat out shut the door. I don’t think he threw a single fastball that was under 87 miles per hour, so he was definitely on for us.”
By the senior’s own admission, there were some hiccups in the shutout. He gave up two hits, walked three and hit a batter.
Greenfield came to breaking through was in the first inning when Gage Burns led off with a single and Sawyer Dodd and Caden Sims both drew bases on balls. Dawson Wimer was caught looking, however, leaving the bases loaded.
“I was a little wild early on in the first inning,” said Thomazin. “After that I kind of settled down.”
The Tigers got on the board in the bottom of the first as Ryan Keith walked to lead off and scored an out later on a double in the left field corner by Hunter Gilkey.
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Four more Walnut Grove runs were plated in the fourth on just one hit. Jon Smith reached on an error, Hesston Shuler struck out, then Dawson Meinders and A.J. Ortiz both walked to fill the sacks. Keith doubled to left to score two runs. A sacrifice fly by Thomazin brought home Ortiz. Walks to Gilkey and Zach Hejna loaded the bases again, and Cory Countryman was hit by a pitch from Greenfield starter Caden Sims to force in Keith.
“Ryan has really come up big for us, starting with the last week of the season and he carried on through districts and sectionals and now through quarterfinals,” Bowling said. “He’s really come on strong, and just really boosted our lineup with him and Logan right behind him and then Hunter Gilkey right behind him. Those are probably one of the best 1-2-3 combinations in the state.”
From there, it was all Thomazin. He struck out the side in five of his seven innings, with the only other two outs being a sacrifice bunt in the third inning and a popup to second base in the fifth.
“I was super confident,” Thomazin said. “We got the one run in the very first inning and I was thinking that was gonna be enough. Then we got the four in the fourth inning and I knew it was going to be over from then.
“I like getting ahead. If I can get a first-pitch strike, I can go to the curveball, then back to the fastball and then go anywhere I want.”
Even in defeat, Wildcat coach Nick Engleman had plenty of praise for his team’s effort.
“My boys accomplished something that had eluded them for awhile,” said Engleman. “It’s the first quarterfinal they’ve been in in 12 or 13 years. They came out and were competitive the last two weeks and that’s what we’ve got to do. You have to be competitive, and I love the fight and love the drive that these kids had, the focus they had the last two weeks and that’s what it takes. Sometimes you just run into something that you just can’t beat and that’s what happened today. We ran into one arm, and that’s it.”
Walnut Grove plays St. Elizabeth in the state semifinal next Wednesday in O’Fallon. For a school known for its basketball prowess, this marks the Tigers have made the final four in baseball.
“It’s great for these seniors,” Bowling said. “They’ve been so successful at basketball and they’ve been so successful at baseball. We just couldn’t get it done in the postseason. This year we finally got it done. We have about six or seven basketball players on this team who played in three straight state title basketball games, so the moment’s not gonna be too big for them.”
“We’ve always been really good at basketball,” Thomazin added. “We made it to state three of my years and probably should have made it my freshman year. In baseball, we’ve always been favored to win state and we’ve always come up short.”
There’s no shortcoming for Walnut Grove in 2018, and in Thomazin’s words, “It’s a really good feeling.”
Greenfield 000 000 0—0 2 1
Walnut Grove 100 400 x—4 4 0
Caden Sims, Colin White (6) & Sawyer Dodd; Logan Thomazin & Hunter Gilkey.
Hits: Greenfield—Gage Burns, Dodd (2B); Walnut Grove—Gilkey (2B), Zach Hejna, Thomazin, Ryan Keith (2B).
