In Exeter, championships have been hard to come by. It’s what makes the Tigers baseball district title this year so special.
“We started to end up with a large stack of district runners-up and three of those came to Billings,” said Exeter Head Coach Matt Tripp.
With three seniors leading the way, the Tigers finally broke through. With Exeter up by a run over Billings in the bottom of the seventh, relief pitcher Morgan Zinn took down the first batter he faced with a strikeout.
“I just knew I need to go up there and pitch and not let them score,” the senior said. “Thank god I did, I don’t really pitch that much.”
Then fellow senior, right fielder Kronikel Lokot caught the two final outs, taking down the Wildcats for the first district championship in Exeter baseball history.
“I didn’t think I was going to catch the ball,” Kronikel said. “It was too far in, I was just running at it and I was just camped under it so thank god.”
It finished off the impressive starting pitching performance from another senior Zachary Lee.
“Zach came through just like we expected him to,” Tripp said. “From the time I saw him in middle school and was his coach there, what you saw in him…that came out.”
But Tripp says the other seniors surprised him like Morgan getting better every year.
“A kid that I wondered if he was ever going to see varsity time,” Tripp said. “To end up our second-best hitter and just phenomenal at first.”
And Kronikel had never played a full season of baseball until this year.
“He wasn’t familiar with baseball but he was like hey I’ll try my best,” Tripp said.
“We were struggling with numbers, there was not enough players,” Kronikel said. “Somehow I started and am playing and now we are district champs.”
The trio helped complete an emotional victory for this group of underdogs.
“We put in the work, these senior guys mean a lot to me,” Zach said. “We have been through a lot.”
But the journey is not over yet, the Tigers play in the state sectionals on Monday.
