MOKANE -- Time seemed to stand still as the baseball floated toward center field. When it finally landed in Chris Seaver’s glove, the Russellville Indians had a reason to celebrate.
Russellville avenged one of its rare regular-season losses Wednesday, edging the Putnam County Midgets for a 3-2 victory in the Class 2 state quarterfinals at South Callaway High School.
“It’s a special feeling,” said Russellville coach Lucas Branson, whose team is returning to the Final Four for the first time since 2018.
In their March 28 meeting at Russellville, Putnam County overcame a four-run deficit to win 10-9 in nine innings. In Wednesday’s state-ranked matchup -- which was moved to South Callaway’s turf infield due to the rain -- the Indians never trailed.
“It really showed our kids what they had to do to get to the level that we wanted to be at,” Branson said. “It was a good matchup in March, and it was a really, really good matchup in May.”
It was also a good pitching matchup between Putnam County’s Gage Pearson and Russellville’s Logan Cinotto.
Pearson struck out five of the first nine batters he faced. Cinotto struck out seven batters the first time through the Midgets’ batting order.
“Going into a game like this, I know a lot of us had butterflies,” Cinotto said. “… At that point in the game, you’re trying to keep from getting too high. You’re trying to throw strikes.”
Gallery: Russellville Baseball vs. Putnam County
Top-ranked Russellville broke through in the top of the third inning. Jake Schulte took a 1-0 pitch from Pearson and drove it over the right-field fence for a solo home run, putting the Indians in front 1-0.
“Since we played these guys back in March, we’ve changed what we do from a hitting approach,” Branson said. “We’re comfortable seeing faster velocity, because we knew we were going to have to beat that to get out of districts. We knew if we wanted to get to the final weekend of the season, we were going to have to speed our bats up and make solid contact.”
Schulte also homered in Monday’s sectional win against Salisbury, but Wednesday’s homer was a big boost for the Indians.
“Any time two elite teams play against each other, whoever scores first has the upper hand,” Branson said.
Pearson broke up a streak of seven consecutive strikeouts by Cinotto with a groundout to open the bottom of the fourth inning. Then cleanup batter Zach Heidenwith blooped a single into shallow left-center field for third-ranked Putnam County.
Courtesy runner Owen Ream moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt, and with nobody covering third base, Ream advanced another 90 feet. The Indians made an overthrow to third on the play and Ream scored easily to tie the game at 1.
The score stayed the same until the sixth, when Charlie Miller led off with a bloop single down the left-field line for Russellville. After a strikeout, Seaver drew a seven-pitch walk -- Pearson’s only free pass of the game -- to put runners on first and second base.
“For him to grind after having a rough couple of at-bats, it was a huge credit for him to let that go,” Branson said of Seaver.
The next batter, Jesse Daniel, hit the first pitch he saw to deep left field for a double, scoring Miller to put the Indians back in front 2-1.
“I was looking first-pitch fastball,” Daniel said. “We’ve been hitting off the machine pretty fast, up around 90 mph. I was just looking to make contact and see where it went.”
Seaver began taking a big lead off third base with Pearson going from the windup. With two outs, a 1-2 pitch bounced away from the Putnam County catcher, and Seaver raced to home plate, scoring a much-needed insurance run for the Indians for a 3-1 lead.
“In that situation, with where we were in the lineup, I told him this is an opportunity to really be aggressive, try to get up the line and play with their minds, and it worked,” Branson said. “Chris is an aggressive baserunner.”
Putnam County got one run back on a two-out single to right field by Carter Quint in the bottom of the sixth, scoring Chase Tomlin. The Midgets had the tying run on third base and the go-ahead run on second, and Cinotto was nearing his pitch-count limit.
As he passed 105 pitches on the next batter, Cinotto finished with a strikeout -- his 12th of the game -- to end the inning on his 107th pitch.
“I definitely was getting worn out,” he said. “I was struggling to hit the zone, but I had to continue to fight.”
Cinotto showed his excitement with a cheer as he headed back to the dugout.
“What he did tonight was a special performance,” Branson said, as Cinotto allowed just three hits and two walks. “… Him being a senior, he really showed what he was about. He just competed his tail off, a great job in a big-time moment.”
Pearson reached his pitch-count limit with two outs in the top of the seventh. He finished with 14 strikeouts in a losing effort, allowing just four hits.
“Gage Pearson is an unbelievable pitcher for them,” Branson said. “He had a great performance.”
The Indians called on Daniel to close the bottom of the seventh. He struck out the first two batters he faced before getting the flyout to center field to end the game.
“Jesse is a super-consistent strike-thrower,” Branson said of Daniel, who also pitched four innings of relief to beat Eugene in the district championship. “We feel like he’s probably the most underrated and best No. 3 pitcher in the state. He’s really showed that over the last couple of weeks.”
Schulte had two of Russellville’s five hits, adding an infield single off Heidenwith, who relieved Pearson to finish the seventh. Daniel also had a two-hit game, reaching base all three times with a hit-by-pitch in the second and a bloop single to right field in the fourth.
For Putnam County (19-3), Pearson’s infield single in the first inning was the first of three hits against Cinotto.
Russellville (27-4) advances to play 10th-ranked Plattsburg in the Class 2 state semifinals. First pitch is at 7 p.m. Monday at U.S. Ballpark in Ozark.
Plattsburg (28-8) blanked Windsor 9-0 for its quarterfinal win Wednesday, advancing to its first Final Four since 2009.