By Kai Raymer (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Few teams embrace and thrive on the little details of postseason baseball quite like the Willard Tigers.
Willard’s formula – sound pitching, mistake-free defense and long at-bats – continues to pay dividends in May.
The Tigers capped a dominant week in the Class 5 District 6 Tournament by defeating Branson 6-0 in Saturday afternoon’s title game. The victory gives Willard (31-5 overall) its fourth district title in five seasons and ninth since 2012.
Willard coach Scott McGee said this year’s squad has many similarities to recent Willard teams.
“This feels like a lot of our other final four teams (style-wise),” he said. “In the postseason, there are just certain things that win. You have to be able to pitch, you have to be able to defend and you have to be able to get one run when you need to. This team is so good at that stuff.”
Over three games in this week’s district tournament, the Tigers recorded three shutouts and had a +21 run differential. Willard now has 13 shutouts on the season.
“I joke about it, but I always tell our pitchers: If we pitch a shutout, we can’t lose,” McGee said.
Willard’s starting pitcher, senior Cameron Jennings, led the way on Saturday. In the hottest game of the season thus far, Jennings threw 6 1/3 innings and allowed just three hits while working around three walks and two beaned batters. He struck out six.
“I’m confident on the mound because I have a great defense behind me,” Jennings said. “It’s really easy to pitch when I know they’ll make the plays. And also, I have a great catcher (Rowden LeJeune). He makes it easy to pitch to.
“I was just focusing on keeping (pitches) over the plate. I knew if I started walking people, I’d get in trouble.”
Jennings also gave Willard an early lead with an RBI double in the first inning.
“He threw me a first-pitch fastball and I just missed it,” Jennigs said. “I really didn’t think he’d throw me another fastball. He did, so I was on time with it and barreled it.”
It wasn’t always smooth sailing for the College of the Ozarks signee. Jennings faced a one-out, bases-loaded situation in the fourth inning with Willard holding a 2-0 lead. He escaped the jam with a strikeout and a groundout.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
“He attacks the zone,” McGee said. “With his height and his ability to throw downhill, it’s tough to square him up. When you do, it’s on the ground and our infield defense is really good.”
Branson’s starting pitcher, senior Hunter Jones, gave an admirable performance in the loss. He struck out nine over 5 1/3 innings while allowing two hits, five walks and beaning two batters.
Willard (No. 1-ranked in MHSBCA Class 5 state poll) finally broke the game open when Branson was forced to go to its bullpen.
Junior shortstop Matt Angel gave Willard some big insurance with a three-run triple to deep center in the sixth inning that put the Tigers ahead 6-0.
“We knew their pitcher was struggling to pitch in the zone,” Angel said. “If it was in that one spot… I was honestly trying to hit a bomb.”
The Tigers will host St. Francis Borgia (22-8 overall) next Saturday, May 25 in a Class 5 quarterfinal matchup. Game time is to be determined.
With a win, Willard would advance to the final four for the fourth time in five seasons. The Tigers won the Class 5 state championship in 2021.
A year ago, Willard was held hitless in a district finals-loss to Glendale.
“That stuck with me quite a bit,” Angel said. “It gave all of us motivation to come into this game swinging.”
McGee said the Glendale loss made Willard overhaul its training and approach during the offseason.
“When you play good people and good competition and they beat you, it does make you reevaluate the way you do things,” McGee said. “We made some offensive changes in the way we’ve trained.
“When (Glendale) beat us last year, we said, ‘Ok, what do we need to do over the next 12 months so that doesn’t happen again?’ Our kids really bought in. Playing Glendale last year made us better this year.”
Branson (No. 6-ranked in MHSBCA Class 5 state poll) finishes with its best record (26-11 overall) in over 10 years. The Pirates, who will graduate a 12-player senior class, were seeking to win the program’s first district championship since 2013.
Willard will have extra time to prepare for its state quarterfinal game next weekend. McGee expects a strong turnout at Tom E. Greenwade Field.
“I do like the week off now because it’s the end of the (school) year and there’s so many distractions,” McGee said. “It also makes it feel like a bigger deal. I love the Saturday games… It really helps with the atmosphere. We’ll get to host and hopefully we’ll have a great experience.”
