While South Callaway was busy winning its second Class 3 state baseball championship in six years, the Class 5 Final Four-bound Jefferson City Jays were taking advantage of the Bulldogs being out of town.
The Jays made the short trip to Mokane on Highway 94 for a couple days to practice on the turf field.
CarShield Field in O'Fallon was still dirt and grass when the Jays finished second in the state last year. Now the entire surface is turf.
With that change, Jefferson City made a change to its practice location. The Jays weren't going to take any chances, especially since defense has been a key factor in their back-to-back runs to the Class 5 semifinals.
"I think the turf makes us even that much better," Jays coach Brian Ash said.
Shortstop and pitcher Grant Wood agrees, saying he prefers to play on the artificial surface.
"With turf you get the true hops," he said. "Usually you don't get too many bad ones."
And the Jefferson City defense usually doesn't have many bad days.
The Jays have only committed 36 errors in 31 games this season, an improvement from 58 in 33 games heading into last year's Final Four.
"Bottom line is pitching and defense is going to win these championship games," Ash said. "You've got to have the hitting, which I think we'll hit, but we can't have any snag defensively."
The most errors the Jays have had this season is four in an 11-5 win at Lee's Summit North. They've had five games with three errors, but 22 with zero or one.
"Not too bad," third baseman Kade Franks said. "Honestly, it probably should be a lot better. I've made my fair share of errors."
Catcher Gaven Strobel said he's become more comfortable on turf.
"Last year I used to have problems with the turf with my cleats getting caught, but I've switched to football cleats and that seemed to help a lot," he said. "Playing on it a lot more this year, I've gotten a lot more used to it."
Jefferson City has been able to keep its defensive mistakes down even with rotating some players around based on who's on the mound.
When Weirich pitches, Brandon Williams takes his spot in right field. Weirich, Gunnar See and Hayden Hirschvogel have all played first base this season. Hirschvogel also plays second base regularly.
When Wood is on the mound, Michael Skinner takes over at shortstop. He's also played a lot at second base.
"Grant wouldn't have 10 wins if Michael wasn't playing the defense he was," Ash said. " Defensively he's shown that he's right there with Grant. His fielding has been very impressive."
Wood's 10 wins is a school record, besting Weirich's mark of nine from last season. Weirich is right behind with nine wins again this season.
"I'm just happy to see him succeed," Weirich said. "That's great. I love it. It's a friendly competition, but at the end of the day we know what we've got to do. I've played with him since we were like 9 years old, so I know what he's capable of. It's no surprise to me. I knew he had it in him."
"We push each other and it just makes us better I think," Wood said.
Wood was not a regular on the mound last season, only throwing 72/3 innings. He's thrown 422/3 this season with three of his wins coming in relief.
"We call those vulture wins," Ash said. "We knew he could help us on the mound but not to this extent. He's kind of a self made pitcher."
The wins record is one of four school marks Wood has broken this season. His list includes the most hits in a season (49), most doubles in a season (17) and career hits (119).
Weirich added two school records in his name this season: Career wins (26) and single season strikeouts (111).
"They have absolutely destroyed the record book at Jeff City," Ash said. "There's been a lot of really really good teams come through Jeff City. We're playing more games than the teams did in the past so there's going to be the potential to break more records and have more wins and all that. It's special. Very well deserved and earned, but not to take away anything away from the great teams we've had in the past. They would trade all that stuff in for a state title. I do know that. That's something they've made very clear."
Weirich is chasing the record for most saves in a season of six. He sits at five right now. His chance could come if Wood starts today's semifinal against Lee's Summit.
"The stats are nice and all but honestly at this point just getting that state championship would mean the most to me," Weirich said.