SEDALIA, Mo. - Jefferson City American Legion Post 5 Senior coach Dane Hughes knew he had a talented group to work with coming into the summer.
The local club made the most of that talent.
Post 5 turned three double plays and Austin Sachse allowed one run in 8 1/3 innings Saturday afternoon en route to a 6-1 win against the Joplin Miners in the championship game of the American Legion Senior state tournament.
"They wanted this pretty bad," Hughes said after Post 5 became the fourth team in program history to win a state title. "It's really cool to see them accomplish it."
Dylan Brauner and Cole Distler both had two hits and drove in a run to help lead the offensive attack for Post 5, which will compete this week in the Mid-South Regional Tournament in North Little Rock, Ark.
"It's going to be a really good experience for the guys to extend their season," Hughes said. "They really enjoy playing with each other, so it should be a good time. We're going to go down there and see what we can do."
Sachse surrendered 10 hits - nine singles - walked five and struck out five to become the third straight Post 5 starting pitcher to throw six-plus innings and earn a win in the double-elimination tournament.
"He wasn't able to get ahead of his hitters like he normally does," Hughes said. "He pitched from behind in the count a lot today, but really bore down and got some tough outs with guys on base. Our defense really stepped up and turned some really nice double plays to get us out of innings."
Todd Buschjost, Hayden Strobel and Logan Bax all drove in a run. Trevor Schnieders, Alex Faddoul, Alex Johnson and Cody Stegemann chipped in with hits.
Post 5 (23-8) took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth and didn't look back.
Brauner, the club's leadoff hitter, connected with a solo home run in the fifth before Post 5 added three insurance runs in the seventh.
"It was big to jump on them early," Hughes said. "That was an emphasis going into the game. Once we got the lead, we were playing for one run to extend it and that's how we got that three-run seventh."
Joplin (29-4-2), which committed four errors, scored its only run in the top of the ninth.
After going undefeated in the tournament, Post 5 captured its first state championship since the program won consecutive titles in 1998 and 1999. Post 5 also won it all in 1965.
"It's really great for the program," Hughes said. "We definitely had some talent with the core of guys coming back. It was really good to see how we developed over the summer."