Surging Blair Oaks rolls past Centralia

Blair Oaks shortstop Chase Schnieders reaches for a ground ball during Friday’s game against Centralia at the Falcon Athletic Complex in Wardsville. (Greg Jackson/News Tribune)
Blair Oaks shortstop Chase Schnieders reaches for a ground ball during Friday’s game against Centralia at the Falcon Athletic Complex in Wardsville. (Greg Jackson/News Tribune)

WARDSVILLE -- The 2019 and the 2022 Blair Oaks baseball teams are not the same teams, but both have obeyed Falcons coach Mike DeMilia’s simple demand he delivers at the start of the season.

Play your best baseball when the calendar turns to the month of May.

Blair Oaks extended its season-long winning streak to six games Friday as it cruised to a 10-0 victory against the Centralia Panthers at the Falcon Athletic Complex.

“We’re getting better,” DeMilia said. “… Today, we took it to them from the beginning to the last run.”

During the 2019 season, Blair Oaks was 10-11 before reeling off 13 consecutive victories to win the Class 3 state championship.

“That year, we beat South Callaway and Scott City, and we didn’t lose again,” DeMilia said.

The past few weeks have had a similar feel to that 2019 season for the Falcons, who fell to 10-12 on April 25 following a 10-3 loss to the Capital City Cavaliers. That has been Blair Oaks’ only loss in its past 10 games.

“This year, we had the loss to Capital City, and I compare that to the loss to Hallsville (in 2019),” DeMilia said, “because we didn’t play real well and I wasn’t sure where we were going. But we responded from there.

“We’ve responded really well since (the Capital City game). We’re not a perfect team, we’re still making mistakes, but we’re playing well at the right time.”


 Gallery: Blair Oaks Baseball vs. Centralia


Blair Oaks scored one run its first time through the batting order against Centralia on an RBI single by Holden Brand. In the third inning, the Falcons’ first seven batters reached base.

“We got our timing better the second time around,” DeMilia said.

Reid Dudenhoeffer hit his second double of the game to right-center field, scoring Jordan Wieberg to extend the Falcons’ lead to 2-0.

“He is at his best when he’s hitting the ball up the middle,” DeMilia said of Dudenhoeffer, who leads the Falcons with 34 hits. “With his power, he likes to pull the ball a little bit, but when he stays gap-to-gap, he’s as good of a hitter as anybody out there.”

Parker Wilson blooped an RBI single into shallow right field, sandwiched between bases-loaded walks to Justin Atnip and Cadon Garber. Chase Schnieders hit a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring Atnip to push the lead to 6-0.

In the fourth inning, Atnip’s second single of the game scored Aiden Boeckmann to make it 7-0.

Since working his way into the varsity lineup a few weeks ago, Antip is batting .562 (9-for-16) to give the Falcons a big boost offensively.

“He was hitting almost .600 on the JV team, and we were struggling offensively at times, so we gave him a shot and he was 3-for-3 that first game against Capital City,” DeMilia said. “He’s been in the lineup almost every game since then.”

The Falcons’ final three runs were driven in by pinch hitters.

Wieberg, who had been in the game previously as a courtesy runner, lined a two-run single down the left-field line in the fourth to extend the lead to 9-0.

In the fifth, Cale Willson -- who took over at first base for Dudenhoeffer -- singled just past the reach of Centralia’s shortstop with one out, scoring Caiden Sanford from third base to end the game by run-rule.

“The strength of our program is our depth,” DeMilia said. “We can go to backups, we can go to second-tier guys, and still be productive.”

One of Blair Oaks’ biggest strengths during its recent winning streak has been its starting pitching, and that continued Friday with Tyler Doman.

Doman pitched five shutout innings, scattering four hits -- all singles -- while striking out seven without allowing a walk.

“Tyler doesn’t have overpowering stuff, but he’s going to throw strikes and he’s going to keep the ball on the edge of the zone,” DeMilia said. “… When you don’t walk anybody, it forces teams to get a bunch of hits in a row.”

In addition to Dudenhoeffer’s two doubles and Atnip’s two singles, Wilson also had a multihit game for the Falcons with a pair of singles. Blair Oaks finished the game with 13 hits in 4⅓ innings.

Earlier this week, Blair Oaks (17-12) learned it will be the No. 2 seed in the Class 4 District 8 Tournament at Southern Boone High School. The Falcons will get a rematch against third-seeded Fatima (12-11) in the semifinals May 17.

“In 2019, we played them in the state finals; last year, we played them in the district finals; and now, we have them in the first round of districts,” DeMilia said. “We keep playing them earlier on in the postseason, which is crazy.”

On the other side of the district bracket, top-seeded Southern Boone (27-1) awaits the winner of No. 4 Mexico (13-8) and No. 5 Fulton (9-10) in the other semifinal contest. The district title game is May 19.

However, before the postseason begins, Blair Oaks has four games in four days next week, starting with Monday’s matchup against the Jefferson City Jays. First pitch is at 5:30 p.m. at Vivion Field.

“We’re so used to playing, I hate having a week off before the biggest games of the year,” DeMilia said. “… We’re going to see good teams, we’re going to see good arms, and that’s going to make us ready (for districts).”

In Friday’s JV game, Blair Oaks defeated Centralia 9-2 to improve to 11-3-2.

Ethan Toebben struck out nine batters in five innings for the Falcons, while Ayden Keesler had a single and a double and Colten Bryan added a two-run double.