[wpbvideo id=”895255″]
By Michael Cignoli (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
SPRINGFIELD — After pitching Skyline to the first two Final Four appearances in school history, Ty Pinon cemented himself as one of Southwest Missouri’s most dominant arms.
Throughout the senior’s decorated high school career, the all-state pitcher left no doubt that Pinon was the name coach Brett Bybee would want on his lineup card for a must-win game.
If Wednesday’s game provided any indication, that’ll still be true after Pinon goes to college.
Well, for at least two more years.
Sophomore Trent Pinon — Ty’s younger brother — threw six stellar innings in the biggest start of his varsity career and Skyline rallied against the Fair Grove bullpen for a 5-2 victory in the Class 3 District 12 championship game on a rainy afternoon at Parkview High School.
It is the third straight district title for the Tigers, who will play either Strafford or Clever on Tuesday to open the state tournament. Those teams meet Thursday for the District 11 title.
With the elder Pinon unavailable after pitching in Skyline’s semifinal win over state-ranked El Dorado Springs on Tuesday, Bybee turned to the sophomore for the championship game.
The younger Pinon took the ball and threw it until the rules no longer permitted him to do so, maxing out his pitch count at 95 after facing one batter in the seventh inning. He held Fair Grove to just six hits and struck out five despite throwing most of the game in a light rainfall.
“Trent has played a lot of baseball,” Bybee said. “His dad and mom have taken him all over the country, just like his brother, and he’s pitched in big games. That feeling of the pressure being on the mound there, he’s used to that. You never know how a young guy — a sophomore or a freshman — is going to handle the pressure. Trent showed he can handle it.”
The Pinon brothers have been a big reason that Skyline (20-3) sits third in the state rankings released by the Missouri High School Baseball Coaches Association earlier this week.
But those rankings mean little at this time of the year, as unranked Fair Grove (18-7) knocked off No. 6 Conway in the semifinals and built a 2-0 lead midway through the fourth inning.
Eagles starter Tanner Lumley held the Tigers to just one baserunner and struck out four on his first trip through the order, while he and Landon Taylor each had run-scoring doubles.
When the Tigers returned to the dugout after the second hit, Bybee’s message was simple.
“How many games have we not scored more than two?” Bybee said. “Look me in the eye and tell me how many games we haven’t scored more than two. There’s a lot of game left. Let’s get on our game and let’s win this ball game. Guys started hitting the balls right there and got back in it. Baseball is a long game. You can’t give up early because if you give up early because if you give up early, you’re going to miss out on a lot of wins you could have.”
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
Skyline didn’t surrender — and its next hit completely changed the game’s momentum.
Zack Williams led off the bottom of the fourth with a hard-hit ball that struck Lumley in the left calf, prompting a visit from the coaches and medical staff, but Lumley stayed in the game.
Williams was forced out on a fielder’s choice, but Skyline’s next two batters both reached safely and coach Christian Overstreet called to the bullpen and moved Lumley to centerfield.
“He wouldn’t tell me that it hurt him, but I could see it affect him a little bit,” Overstreet said.
Overstreet said the plan was always to remove Lumley after four innings, as the senior only recently joined the rotation and hadn’t built up the stamina needed for a longer outing.
But the sequence of events adjusted that timeline and gave Skyline an unexpected opportunity as Fair Grove’s unquestioned on-field leader abruptly exited the mound.
“Since I’ve been at Fair Grove, I’ve never had a senior mean more to a team than he has to us this year,” Overstreet said. “He’s our only senior and that’s not an easy job. Being the only senior on a team and having the weight of that leadership in that responsibility on your shoulders is not something that any kid can do. He’s been able to do that and has had a great year. That’s a tough one to swallow, but Skyline was the better team today.”
Fair Grove’s defense struggled to support reliever Logan Daniels, committing two throwing errors in the frame that allowed runs to score. Cohen Mashburn added an RBI single and Skyline ended the inning ahead 3-2.
“You never want to see a kid get injured,” Bybee said. “I’ve seen a lot of kids get some balls back at them. As a momentum swing there, that was a hard-hit ball. Even if a ball doesn’t hit a guy, if you zoom one by him those pitchers remember that. That’ll get them out of their game a little bit. That’s what it took for us to get on a roll.”
As Trent Pinon took the mound in the fifth, he had his first lead of the game.
The sophomore responded by holding Fair Grove to just one hit the rest of the afternoon, the kind of shut-down performance that has become the hallmark of his older brother.
“I think we both have similar mechanics,” Trent Pinon said. “We grew up playing catch in the backyard. He basically taught me how to play baseball. It makes it a lot of fun.”
At this point of Trent’s career, though, Ty doesn’t have a whole lot more to teach him.
“He’s a smart kid,” the senior said. “He knows what he has to do. Sometimes it takes a little encouragement. I talked to him before the game and told him ‘Your stuff is good enough. Just get ahead in the count. Don’t try to get too fine with them. Just go right at them. If they hit the ball, good for them, but just make them earn it. Don’t walk guys. Don’t hit guys. Make them earn it.’ I just told him to trust his stuff. He has good stuff and things would work out the way he wanted them too. They sure did today. We’re really happy right now.”
The elder Pinon and Nick Williams had RBI hits in the sixth inning as Skyline built a three-run lead heading into Fair Grove’s final at bat of the afternoon.
The Eagles brought the tying run to the plate in the seventh, but junior Dawson Owen retired all three batters he faced to earn the save and send Skyline back to the state tournament.
With one Pinon on the team, the Tigers were able to reach the Final Four in each of the past two seasons. With two now on the roster, can they go even further?
Only Ty — and Trent — will tell.
“It’s good to see Trent go up there and do how he did as a young kid, as a sophomore,” his brother said. “I know what it’s like to be pitching in a big game. I’m just proud of him, man. He went out there and he did a heck of a job as a 15-, 16-year-old kid, going up there and really showing what he’s about. He stepped up, for sure.”
