The Blair Oaks Falcons didn't get the end result they wanted in the Capital City Invitational.
But they're still happy where they sit 12 games into the season, despite a 7-6 loss to Hickman in the third-place game Saturday afternoon at Vivion Field.
"You have to look on the bright side," Blair Oaks head coach Harv Antle said. "You just went toe-to-toe with two of the bigger high schools in the state. A hit here, a hit there, a break here, a break there, it's a different ball game."
Blair Oaks finished the tournament 2-2 after losses to Hickman and Jefferson City on Saturday.
"We said at the beginning of the week as a coaching staff, if we could go 3-2 that's a good week for us," Antle said, including a game with Southern Boone earlier in the week. "With our fast start and putting a 3-2 record together this week, we're sitting at 10-2 coming out of the Capital City Invitational. That's a pretty good place."
Hickman rallied from a 6-2 to deficit to take third place.
"Disappointing certainly," Antle said. "You have a lead and it gets away from you and things come apart at the end."
Hickman scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to knot the score at 6 before Zach Harris delivered the eventual game-winning RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the sixth.
Hickman had taken a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an unearned run.
Blair Oaks responded with a pair of runs in the top of the second to take the lead.
In what became a theme, the bottom of the Falcons' lineup delivered.
Ryan Wilbers, James Reinkemeyer and Dalton Fifer combined to go 6-for-10 with four RBI against Hickman.
"The 7-8-9 guys did their job," Antle said. "Certainly that's productive going forward because the more length you have in your lineup the more dangerous you are."
Reinkemeyer's two-run double gave Blair Oaks a 2-1 lead.
Hickman knotted the score in the bottom of the third before the Falcons plated three runs in the top of the fourth to go up 5-2.
Fifer's RBI double made it 3-2 before leadoff man Logan Bax smacked a single past a drawn-in defense to bring two more runs home.
Reinkemeyer added an RBI single in the fifth to put Blair Oaks ahead 6-2.
"James was hot all day," Antle said.
Hickman scored four runs in the fifth on four hits. It could have been worse but the left fielder, Wilbers, threw a runner out at the plate to end the frame.
After Hickman took the lead in the sixth inning, Blair Oaks had one last chance.
Wilbers stroked a one-out double before moving to third on a groundout. Fifer nearly tied the game, but his rocket to went straight to the Hickman center fielder to end the contest.
"A case of bad baseball luck there in the last inning," Antle said. "We had a guy on second at Dalton absolutely gets it on the barrel but right at the center fielder."
Wilbers went 3-for-3 and reached based four times, Reinkemeyer went 2-for-3 and reached based three times and Brent Heckemeyer added two hits.
"We had our chances," Antle said. "We just didn't get enough runs when they presented themselves."
Blair Oaks travels Monday to Fulton.