CALIFORNIA, Mo. - The Blair Oaks Falcons had at least a share of the conference title, but they won it outright Monday.
Ryan Paschal threw a two-hitter and Garrett Welschmeyer drove in four runs, leading the Falcons to an 11-0 win in six innings against the California Pintos.
Blair Oaks finishes the regular season with a 17-8 record and posted a perfect 7-0 record in the Tri-County Conference.
"We're starting to play that good baseball, a full game of baseball: offense, defense and pitching," Blair Oaks coach Travis Henke said.
Blair Oaks started the game by swinging at the first four pitches, putting all four in play. Ethan Rackers started the game with a single to center field and Welschmeyer hit an RBI double down the right-field line on the fourth pitch to give the Falcons a 1-0 lead.
"Ethan Rackers did a great job of setting the tone as the first batter," Henke said. "He started the inning off the right way. Our offense followed him."
As it turned out, that first run was enough run support for Paschal.
The senior right-hander finished with 10 strikeouts and allowed just two hits, a single to Sam Kirby in the first inning and a single to Jon Pardoe in the second.
"This is one of the best games I've seen Ryan throw," Henke said. "He commanded the fastball, he commanded his offspeed stuff and he kept his pitch count down."
The Pintos threatened with a scoring chance in the bottom of the second, putting runners on first and third base with no outs after Pardoe's hit. Paschal struck out the next batter, then induced an inning-ending double play to get out of the jam.
"Thomas (Verslues) and Ethan made a great play up the middle and finished off that double play," Henke said. "They came off the field fired up and that's the kind of attitude I want them to have."
Blair Oaks added three runs in the third inning and two more in the fifth to extend its lead to 6-0.
A five-run sixth inning - keyed by a bases-clearing double from Welschmeyer, who has a team-high 28 RBI this season - gave the Falcons plenty of cushion and led to a run-rule win.
"He struggled a little bit Saturday, but he has found his stride again," Henke said of Welschmeyer, who went 3-for-4 and added a single in the fifth. "He is seeing the ball well."
Paschal reached base in all four plate appearances, leading to four runs scored in his spot in the order - two by him and two by courtesy runner Jacob Stegemann. Paschal and Verslues each went 2-for-3 with a pair of singles and one RBI.
Paschal retired the last 11 batters he faced following a one-out walk in the third inning to get his third win of the season. Four Blair Oaks pitchers have each won three games this season.
Blair Oaks learned Sunday it would be the No. 3 seed in the Class 4 District 9 Tournament, which starts later this week at Sullivan. The Falcons will face sixth-seeded Sullivan (13-7) at 7 p.m. Friday in the first round.
Helias (15-5) is the No. 1 seed in the seven-team district, followed by Salem (16-1) at No. 2. St. James (14-5) and Southern Boone (10-9) are the third and fourth seeds, respectively, and Owensville (9-8) is No. 7.
"We need to come out and play great baseball," Henke said. "It's a district where we don't know a whole lot about the four teams down south. We know what we have, we know what Helias has, we know what Southern Boone has.
"We aren't familiar with the other four teams and that's what makes it scary. They have good records and are playing good ball."
California (10-7, 3-4 Tri-County) also wrapped up the regular season Monday. The Pintos received the No. 2 seed in the Class 3 District 13 Tournament, which will be played in California.
The Pintos await the winner of No. 3 Warsaw and No. 6 Versailles in the semifinals at 6:30 p.m. next Monday. California defeated both teams earlier this season.
"The regular season is over, it's clean-slate time and it's time to get dialed in," California coach Matt Moulder said. "Everybody is 0-0. We just have to put in some great work the rest of the week and get prepared for next week."
Blair Oaks won the JV game 5-1 to finish the season with an 11-6-1 record.
Tyler Gish went 2-for-2 with a pair of singles to lead the Falcons. Nolan Hair struck out eight batters in four innings and allowed just one hit to get the win.