Jays pick up wins against Camdenton, Sedalia S-C

After his team’s first game Saturday, Jefferson City coach Brian Ash lamented the Jays’s struggles with baserunning and situational hitting. In the second game, the Jays took a commanding lead with stellar baserunning and erased any doubt with situational hitting.

It was like night and day.

Well, morning and afternoon.

Though both games ended in wins, it was the Jays’ 7-1 defeat of Sedalia Smith-Cotton in the latter that had Ash enthused.

“This is the best team win that we’ve had up to this point,” Ash said, “and it’s good late in the year against a team like Sedalia. We played like champions today, and we have to remember how that feels and continue to keep our higher level of play at that level.”

The Jays’ first game Saturday was a 6-5 win against Camdenton.

Jefferson City took a 4-0 lead in the second inning of that game on a Kade Franks double, a Gaven Strobel hit by pitch, and RBI singles from Tyler Bise and Hayden Hirschvogel. Bise and Hirschvogel came around on a double steal and a passed ball, respectively, but the Jays’ baserunning wasn’t as fortuitous later in the game, as two runners were picked off.

“Sometimes we’re not very bright on the bases, and today it was evident,” Ash said between games. “At times we show flashes of good baserunning and at times we don’t, and it probably cost us another run or two because we are boneheads.”

Just one of the Jays’ six hits came with two outs, and the single quickly turned into a pickoff. Generating breathing room on the scoreboard has been a struggle for the Jays this season.

“We’ve just got to limit our strikeouts,” Ash said, “and situational hitting, we still, once again, today just did not do a great job at it.”

Jefferson City did pick up a run in the fourth inning when Bise tripled and scored on a Blaine Meyer groundout. The Jays scored again in the sixth on a pair of errors and a sacrifice fly from Franks.

Hirschvogel picked up the win, allowing no runs in three innings. He entered the fourth inning and slowed the Camdenton offense, which had produced nine baserunners in the last 11 at-bats.

“He’s going to throw strikes,” Ash said of Hirschvogel. “That’s what he does. He got us out of some jams and kept the game where it didn’t get out of control or where they took the lead, so that was huge.”

Smith-Cotton was the first to strike in the second game, scoring a run in the top of the second after starter Jacob Weirich allowed three straight walks and an RBI single. Weirich finished the game with six walks, and the Jays were visibly frustrated with the strike zone.

“I know that (the Tigers) are going to put the bat on the ball coming into this game, good hitting team, so when the strike zone’s struggling, I’m just going to try to give them pitches to hit and let my defense make plays,” Weirich said.

The Tigers didn’t hold the lead for long. Gaven Strobel was hit by a pitch to open the bottom of the inning. Bise walked, Brandon Williams laid down a two-strike sacrifice bunt, and Hirschvogel and Meyer each drove in a run.

It looked like it would be a pitchers’ duel for the next 21/2 innings, as the teams combined for just one hit. But the Jays found a way to manufacture offense in the bottom of the fifth, with J.T. Bohlken and Grant Wood on base after a fielder’s choice and an infield single, respectively. A throw by the catcher to first that would have nabbed Wood instead cruised into right field, allowing Bohlken to score from second. Then, in the same at-bat, Wood stole home during the catcher’s relay back to the pitcher.

Wood’s idea or Ash’s?

“Both,” Ash said. “We’d been talking about it between innings if we got a guy on third with some speed. It was something we saw and we knew we could take advantage of it.”

Given the Jays’ limited production with runners in scoring position, it looked like the pair of runs scored the hard way would be the difference in the game. Much to Ash’s pleasure, that did not turn out to be the case. The Jays plated three runs in the sixth on a pair of two-out hits from Meyer and Weirich to go up 7-1.

“We’ve been in all those one-run games. We’ve been in more than probably anybody in the state,” Ash said. “So it was nice, that last inning, to tack on three more runs, even though you felt like 4-1 might be enough. Against Sedalia and quality teams, the more runs you can get, the better you feel.”

The Tigers went down in order in the seventh, with the second-to-last out of the game coming on a highlight-reel-worthy, fully extended diving grab by Wood in centerfield.

“That was an amazing play,” Weirich said. “I know my defense is going to come out here every day and make plays behind me.”

Weirich pitched a complete game, allowing four hits and striking out six.

The two wins improved the Jays’ record to 21-5. They’ve already won more games than last year’s team, which finished second in the district tournament. It’s the third time in four years Jefferson City has won 20 or more games.

“As a coach, you’d trade them all in for district championships and stuff like that, give kids an opportunity to play in the state playoffs,” Ash said. “It’s nice. It’s a level of consistency, I guess, but our goal’s not to win 20 games.”

The Jays face Rock Bridge, the team that has denied them a district title the past two seasons, at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in Columbia.