Missouri Class 3 baseball championship: Father Tolton erases another deficit to defeat Springfield Catholic

Trailblazers spot No. 1-ranked Irish three runs before taking over to claim program's first state title

By Cody Thorn 

Photos courtesy of Ron and Lisa Rigdon, Cheap Seats Photo

OZARK — For the second day in a row, Father Tolton Regional Catholic fell behind early but rallied for a win.

This latest come-from-behind win, 8-4 against Springfield Catholic, secured the Class 3 state baseball championship at U.S. Baseball Park in the final game on Thursday night.

The final pitted the No. 1-ranked Irish — a school located about 15 minutes away — against the Columbia parochial school.

Springfield Catholic jumped ahead 3-0 in the first inning — aided by a two-run double from Coleman Morrison — the same amount of runs Lawson scored in the semifinals to take an early lead against the Trailblazers.

Just like the semifinals, Father Tolton (18-3) overcame the early deficit and surged ahead. It ended with the first-ever state championship for the school.

Tolton tied the game up in the second inning on a little league-like home run.

Junior second baseman Justus Martin, with two runners on, hit a ball to right field. The deep shot allowed the two runners to score and thanks to an error, Martin scored to tie the game at 3-3.

The Irish (18-11) regained the lead on a double by Ben Ruter in the top of the third inning, but Martin came up big at the plate again in the bottom of the third. He had a two-run single with two outs to center field to make it 5-4 in Tolton's favor.

The Trailblazers never trailed again.

“I was feeling confident, I was trying to keep my swing clean,” said Martin, who was 2-for-3 at the plate. “Just try not to overdo it. We know they have good pitchers; we just have to keep the bat on the ball and do what you can do.

"This field is probably the biggest field I have played on in my high school career. Some kids are putting up shots that would go out of high school fields.”

Senior Logan Thompson, who was pulled after one inning on the mound, delivered a two-run single in the fourth inning – after Springfield Catholic changed pitchers with two outs and two runners on base.

That hit extended the lead to 7-4. Thompson was 2-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBIs.

State Fair Community College signee JC Putnam hit an RBI single in the sixth to account for the final run for the Trailblazers.

Connor Head, a junior right-hander, threw six innings of relief for Tolton, giving up five hits and one earned run, while striking out eight.

“I knew we had a lot of work to do at the plate and my job was to shut them down and I did that,” said Head, who improved to 6-0.

“It was definitely a hard battle with those two big guys in the middle, the two Mizzou commits (Morrison and Ben Smith), they can hit the ball well. I feel like I did a good job of containing them.”

Class 3 Third Place

Lawson 10, Valley Park 3

The Cardinals scored seven runs over the final two innings to pull away and secure third place on Thursday night.

Lawson tallied 12 hits with five players collecting two hits each: Left fielder Lane Chapman, first baseman Kaden Owens, center fielder Kota Triplett, catcher Kyler Jenkins and designated hitter Kale Thomas.

Owens and Thomas drove in three runs each for the Cardinals (22-5). Owens provided the first RBI of the game with a groundout in the first inning.

In the four-run sixth inning, Owens had a two-run double. Thomas had two RBI singles and then added a sacrifice fly.

Both of Triplett’s hits were triples, part of five extra-base hits by Lawson, a member of the KCI Conference in northwest Missouri. Lawson stranded 12 runners on base.

Sophomore right-hander Quinton McAtee tossed a complete game for Lawson, giving up six hits and striking out eight.

Valley Park (19-6) scored two of its three runs on the final play of the game, when Peyton Walker hit a two-run single but he was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double.

The Hawks’ first run came in the sixth inning on an RBI double by Jeffrey Chitwood.