The Jefferson City Jays had no problems getting on base Monday night against the Blair Oaks Falcons.
Pushing those runners across the plate, however, was a much harder task.
Jefferson City left 12 runners on base, including eight in scoring position, as Blair Oaks posted an 8-0 victory at Vivion Field.
“That’s the product of playing the tough teams we have,” Blair Oaks coach Mike DeMilia said. “We’ve been in a lot of tough situations, so we usually don’t let that stuff bother us.
“For a shutout, it was not the easiest shutout in the world.”
The breaks just never went Jefferson City’s way, as the Jays left the bases loaded in both the first and second innings.
“If we do a couple small things right early, we have a chance to put a couple runs on the board in the first couple innings and get us going,” Jefferson City coach Kyle Lasley said. “We’re on a drought now of not scoring runs.
“The last three or four weeks, we’ve gotten guys on and we’ve gotten guys over. We just haven’t gotten guys in.”
Gallery: Blair Oaks Baseball vs. Jefferson City
While the Jays were stranding runners, the Falcons were scoring them on two outs in the first two innings.
Justin Atnip continued his tear in the batter’s box with an RBI single up the middle in the first inning, scoring Jordan Wieberg to put the Falcons in front 1-0.
“He’s just a good hitter,” DeMilia said of Atnip, who added an RBI single to left field in the fourth inning to keep his varsity batting average above .500 this season. “Obviously, he’s going to have to be big for us in the postseason.”
In the second inning, the Falcons went for a double-steal of second and third base as Tyler Doman went down looking on strikes. The throw from Jefferson City catcher Will Berendzen hit Doman in the helmet, but because Doman occupies the batter’s box and did not attempt to get in Berendzen’s way, there was no interference call.
It was another break that didn’t go the Jays’ way, and it proved to be costly.
Wil Libbert followed with a two-run single to right field, scoring Cadon Garber and Jake Hagner. After a Reid Dudenhoeffer single, Aiden Boeckmann followed with an RBI single up the middle. Two batters later, Parker Wilson drew a four-pitch walk, scoring Dudenhoeffer to give the Falcons a 5-0 lead.
The hit by Libbert proved to be a big confidence boost for Blair Oaks.
“Up 5-0 with Wil Libbert on the mound is usually a pretty good situation,” DeMilia said.
Libbert had struck out 19 and 17 batters in his previous two pitching appearances, but the Jays made him work on the mound. Jefferson City batters struck out just five times against the hard-throwing Libbert and drew six walks.
“The first thing I said to the players (after the game) was I thought we had some really good at-bats tonight,” Lasley said. “We made him throw some pitches, we battled with two strikes.
“He’s a good arm, but it’s good we saw a lefty, because we’re going to see a couple lefties here in the next couple days.”
Libbert was relieved on the mound after throwing 102 pitches in 4⅓ innings, but he pitched well enough to earn his second straight win after six consecutive no-decisions to start the season.
“It was a weird night,” DeMilia said. “Wil didn’t have great command. The strike zone was definitely small, which played a factor in it. But he just kept pitching and just made pitches when he had to.”
Cale Willson followed with 1⅔ scoreless innings of relief for the Falcons, striking out three. Holden Brand then worked around a one-out double by Eli Miller to finish the shutout in the seventh.
“Cale came in and filled up the zone as well as you could ask,” DeMilia said. “He doesn’t get hit hard usually, so if he can get it in the strike zone, he’s going to be tough to score on. And he’s a guy we may need here at the end.”
Blair Oaks tacked on two runs in the fourth and Libbert added an RBI single in the fifth to push the lead to 8-0.
Libbert’s single was the only baserunner allowed by Jefferson City relief pitcher Jordan Welch, who retired the final eight batters he faced to extend the game to a full seven innings.
Doman finished with a single and a double for Blair Oaks, while Libbert, Dudenhoeffer and Atnip each had two singles.
Connor Earleywine had a pair of singles for Jefferson City’s only multihit game.
Blair Oaks (18-12) will look to extend its seven-game winning streak in tonight’s home finale against Hallsville. First pitch is at 5 p.m. at the Falcon Athletic Complex.
“We’ve been pointing toward this time of the year,” DeMilia said. “We’re playing (four games) this week against good teams every night. It’s a hard week, but it’s going to be good for us.”
Jefferson City (6-23) will try to snap its 13-game losing streak tonight against Sedalia Smith-Cotton. First pitch is at 5:30 p.m. at Vivion Field.
“We don’t want to look past these next two games, but our main focus right now is that game Monday,” Lasley said, referencing the start of the district tournament. “We’re not going to win a conference championship, we’re not playing for an above-.500 record, we’re not playing for a 20-win season.
“We’re just playing for that one game on Monday. Hopefully we can get something going in the next couple days.”
In Monday’s JV game, Blair Oaks defeated Jefferson City 5-4. Cody Pickett had eight strikeouts in 4⅓ innings for the Falcons, while Colten Bryan had two hits and two RBI.