By Michael Cignoli (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
OZARK — Long before what happened at US Ballpark in Ozark on Monday evening, this year’s Marionville baseball team had already established itself as the one against which all others will be judged.
No group of Comets had ever reached a Final Four — only one other team had even won a district championship — so this was already the most accomplished season in school history.
And the accomplishments keep coming.
Marionville advanced to the Class 2 championship game with a stunning 8-5 victory over Putnam County, scoring the final eight runs after falling into an early hole at U.S. Ballpark.
Blane Young had the go-ahead hit in the top of the seventh inning for the Comets, who will face East Buchanan at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday on this same field for the state championship.
The Comets committed four errors in the first three innings and spotted the District 11 champions a 5-0 lead before rallying for four runs in the fourth, one in the sixth and three in the seventh to reach the school’s first title game in Alex Weathermon’s first year as head coach.
Weathermon was a senior on the 2015 team that won Marionville’s only other district title and rejoined the program as an assistant in 2019. He was promoted to head coach in April 2020 and established a school record for victories (22-6) in his first season at the helm.
“The big stuff I’ve preached this year is attitude, approach, intensity and toughness,” Weathermon said. “Whenever you get down, whenever a bad situation happens, how do you respond to that? I told the boys — about the third inning, I believe it was — you can either lay down right now and just be happy making it to the Final Four or you guys can decide to come out and play a baseball game. If we’re going to go down, we’re going to go down fighting. They decided to go down and really get after it.”
That never-give-up attitude is one of the biggest similarities between the 2021 and 2015 teams, the coach continued.
“The grit and the resiliency to just battle, battle, battle back then whenever we didn’t have enough talent is something that I’ve just tried to teach these boys and show them how to be a fierce competitor,” Weathermon added. “I was never the most talented player in the world, but I wanted to win more than anybody else. These boys have really latched on to that.”
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The buy-in has resulted in one of the most impressive postseason runs imaginable.
Fourteen teams received votes in the most recent edition of the Class 2 statewide rankings, which were released at the end of the regular season. The Comets have beaten five of them — Purdy, Crane, Marion C. Early, Gainesville and Putnam County — in a six-game playoff run.
No other Final Four team had to face more than one of those 14 schools to make it to Ozark.
“We’ve been doubted every step of the way and we’ve just shown them that we shouldn’t have been doubted,” said Marionville reliever Cale Clark. “We’ve been the underdog in every single game, except for maybe the first one of the playoffs against Verona, and we’ve taken care of business against every single person.”
Clark came in to record the final out of the third inning after Jordan Williams allowed five runs — only one of them earned — and five hits as the defense struggled behind the starter.
Clark threw 4.1 innings of no-hit relief, walking one batter and hitting two but not allowing any of them to reach scoring position. The defense was flawless the rest of the evening.
“That first inning was a little nerve-wracking, but then I got all my command down and everything and it was just easy going from there,” Clark said.
Clark also got the offense going, leading off the top of the fourth with a triple and scoring on Williams’ sacrifice fly. Duane Hammonds doubled, Young singled and Kyle Brattin brought them both home with a two-out triple, then Brattin scored on Jacksen Smith’s RBI single.
Putnam County starter Gage Pearson — who entered the state tournament with a 9-0 record, 1.62 ERA and 99 strikeouts in just 43.2 innings — was virtually untouchable on his first trip through the Marionville lineup, allowing just one hit over the first three innings. But after only seven batters, what was a mammoth five-run lead had dwindled to a one-run advantage.
“We’re resilient,” Clark said. “We never get down. Great approaches at the plate. When the pressure’s on, we’re better.”
Marionville pulled even on a sixth-inning RBI single from Smith, then took its first lead of the game in the top of the seventh.
Lake High hit a one-out single that chased Pearson from the game and Clark drilled the first pitch from reliever Lance Fowler past the shortstop to give the Comets two on with one out.
Hammonds walked to load the bases, setting the stage for Young’s two-run, go-ahead hit.
“Just did what I was doing all game,” Young said, still searching for the words to describe the feeling. “Just tried to put it in play and make the run come across.”
Brattin walked later in the inning to bring in another run, giving the Comets a three-run lead. Clark threw a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the frame to send Marionville to the title game.
Heading into the showdown with East Buchanan (18-8), Weathermon said the focus is going to be less about making history and more doubling down on what gave them the chance to do it.
“I always have high expectations,” Weathermon said. “I knew that we were capable of it. I just don’t want to mention it. Even tonight and tomorrow, our talk is going to be about ‘Hey, let’s play our best baseball.’ We actually kind of got lucky. Tonight’s the first night that we’ve committed an error in the last few games. So we just found a way to get it done. We’re just going to play our best baseball tomorrow. I think my boys want it and I just keep preaching to them that the only team that can beat you is yourselves.”
No matter the outcome, Weathermon couldn’t be happier that a group of Marionville players has finally reached the state championship game — and that he got to be a part of the ride.
“From the white squirrels to the Hillbilly’s cheeseburgers to hitting home runs on our city softball field whenever I was 12, just getting to share this moment with the community has been so special to me,” Weathermon said, referencing some of the hallmarks of his hometown. “They’re such awesome people. It couldn’t have happened to a better group of kids. But being from Marionville, you know, this is a dream come true. Not very many people get to live this and this is something I’ll be able to cherish and hold onto forever.”
