WESTPHALIA - Fatima's first-year head coach Brian Bax had the pieces of a great baseball team in March. It just took a few weeks for everybody to get healthy, get on the same page and push toward their shared goal.
That goal is now just two wins away.
The Comets (14-14) are headed back to the Class 3 Final Four for the first time since 2015, when they beat Scott City 3-2 in eight innings to claim the state title. They did it with quality pitching, timely hitting and good defense, beating Ava 4-1 Wednesday at Lions Field to advance to the semifinal Monday in O'Fallon.
Fatima will face No. 10 Saxony Lutheran (22-3) at 4 p.m. Montgomery City (17-8) and Blair Oaks (21-11) will play in the other semifinal at 6:30 p.m. at CarShield Field.
The Comets' season started 0-4, and shortly after featured a stretch of six games in six days against mostly Class 4 and 5 competition, including the Capital City Invitational, that threw off the starting rotation.
Entering its April 11 game at Hallsville, Fatima sported a 3-9 record, and then a broken hand suffered by junior starting middle infielder Dawson Peters in the next game at Eugene threw a wrench in the Comets' defense. Peters played but did not hit against Ava, and despite an error on a throw to first, made several other impressive plays on balls hit up the middle and Fatima turned two double plays.
The Comets lost three straight entering Senior Day against Vienna, and are now riding a five-game win streak from that game, through the Class 3 District 9 Tournament, and on into the state semifinals.
"We're pretty resilient," Bax said. "I was pretty real with them about what I thought we had and the competition we were going to play through the season and what our goals were. Now we're here and when it really counts, we're playing tough ballgames and scratching it out."
Senior Gage Bax hit 3-for-4 including a two-run home run in the fifth inning to finish a triple shy of hitting for the cycle.
"I've got a lot of emotions going in me right now," Bax said after the win. "You dream of this since freshman year, and we lose in districts the last three years. Now we're finally going to the Final Four. It feels great."
Sophomore Jake Boyce was 3-for-3 with an RBI, and junior Wyatt Luebbert was 2-for-3.
Fellow senior Josef Keilholz threw a complete game to lead his team to the next round, allowing six hits, two walks and a run with seven strikeouts. His fastball hummed, his curveball and changeup had pinpoint accuracy and Keilholz stayed in command with his quick delivery from both the windup and the stretch.
"This is amazing," Keilholz said. "Coming in I was pumped, I was ready, and then whenever Gage hit that home run to put us ahead by an even bigger score, I was pumped. I wanted this game."
After a pregame coin toss, Fatima played as the visiting team and quickly took the lead in front of a home crowd. With two out in the top of the first, Keilholz singled through the right side of the infield, and then Bax pulled the first pitch he saw Zach Richards just inside the third-base bag for a stand-up double. Keilholz came home on a dropped third pitch passed ball, and Boyce singled in Bax.
The Bears threatened with runners on first and second in the bottom of the first and two out, but Kielholz struck out five-hole hitter Carter Campbell on three pitches.
Neither team got more than one runner on base in any of the following three innings. But in the top of the fifth with one away, Austin Wegman reached on a walk, and then with two down Bax, after falling behind 0-2, crushed a the 1-2 pitch to left-center.
"It was amazing," Bax said of the home run. "Going into the at-bat, I knew he was relying on his curveball a lot. I think he threw me four out of five pitches was curveballs. He was throwing me a lot of good ones, and I was fouling them off, and he finally hung one and I got a good piece of bat on it, and oh, it felt really good. It really did."
Cunningham followed with a single and stole second, but was thrown out at home trying to score on Boyce's third single of the game.
Ava responded in the bottom of the inning, and put a man on second with one out thanks to a single and a wild pitch. Peters' throwing error put runners at the corners, and then a single by Thomas Emerich ended the shutout, but Dean Hagenhoff started a 4-3 double play to end the inning.
The Bears threatened again with one out in the bottom of the seventh thanks to a walk and a single. Keilholz entertained the infield and Brian Bax for a short mound visit, then punched the next two hitters out with no trouble to secure the win.
"I just reminded him that we've got a three-run lead and the guys on base don't matter," Bax said. "We're worried about the hitters right now."