Oran wins third-place game

~Eagles rebound to beat Sacred Heart, 7-3

COLUMBIA -- Despite feeling a little blue from Wednesday's disappointing showing in the MSHSAA Class 1A semifinals, Oran's baseball team showed why it belonged among the final four teams in Columbia on Thursday.

The Eagles scored four runs in the bottom of the first inning to propel the team to a 7-3 win against Sacred Heart in the Class 1A third place game at Taylor Stadium on the campus of the University of Missouri.

It's Oran's fourth third place finish at state in five appearances. The Eagles took second place in 1998. But even a win on Thursday couldn't keep Oran head coach Mitch Wood from thinking about that ever elusive first place trophy.

"It's better than fourth," said Wood. "Our bunch was pretty let down after yesterday. To crawl out of bed this morning and come back out here was tough on them. I could tell the kids weren't as excited about this game. As a coach you want to get them up and get them ready for third place, but at the same time we came up here to do a job and try to win first place. We all knew that was over with."

In Thursday's semifinal game against eventual state champion Marion C. Early, the Eagles faced one of the state's premier hurlers in Chris Gerleman, who silenced Oran's bats in an 8-4 loss.

"The difference between yesterday and today is an 85 mile per hour fastball compared to about a 75 mile per hour fastball," said Wood, referring to Gerleman's heater.

Sacred Heart (16-5), making its first ever trip to the Final Four, ran out of pitching in its semifinal loss to New Haven, forcing the Gremlins to go with No. 3 hurler Daniel Desmond. Even Sacred Heart head coach Steven Goodwin knew his team was in trouble against the powerful Eagle offense.

"When (Oran's players) see Daniel's pitch compared to Gerleman's, Daniel's looks like a beach ball when it comes up there," said Goodwin. "I knew they were going to be aggressive and they hit it. They're just a really good baseball school. Top to bottom Oran is just a better baseball team than us. I thought they would hit Daniel, but I thought they would get more than seven. If you had told me before the game that we would only give up seven, I'd take it."

And seven almost wasn't enough for the Eagles. After Oran built a 6-1 lead, the Gremlins cut the gap to 6-3 in the fifth inning. In the fifth and sixth innings Sacred Heart had the tying run at the plate.

But Eagles pitcher Ryne Wood was able to get out of both jams unscathed, including an epic at-bat by Ryan Rife in the fifth in which the junior second baseman fouled off eight pitches. Wood eventually got him to ground out to first base to end the inning.

"He's a good pitcher, he's the coach's kid and he's always going to do things smart," said Goodwin of Wood. "He's always going to throw strikes and he's going to stay around the strike zone. I don't think he ever really got rattled but we had some moments where we could've gotten the game within one or two runs. But Wood threw a good ballgame."

Wood struck out seven batters in picking up the complete game win. He allowed five hits and four walks. At the plate he went 2-for-4 with three RBIs and a run scored.

Oran (20-5) also saved some potential runs with good defense, particularly by catcher Nathan Seyer, who threw out two runners trying to steal and another that strayed too far from second base.

Seyer also had a good day at the plate, going 3-for-3 with three runs scored, three stolen bases and an RBI. The Eagles' bats were hot in the first inning with Wood and Trey Graviett blasting consecutive RBI-doubles. Garrett Roslen added an RBI-sacrifice fly in the first to make it 4-0. The four runs proved to be enough for Wood.

"That's our type of baseball -- we have big innings and I expected it yesterday all the way through," said Coach Wood. "But we faced a good pitcher yesterday."

Desmond, who struggled in the first inning, settled down to allow just three runs the rest of the way. He threw six innings, allowing seven runs (five earned) off nine hits with two walks and a strikeout. He also hit three batters. Desmond also went 2-2 with two RBIs.

"I like the way we played today," said Goodwin. "That's our third best pitcher on the hill throwing against a bunch of mashers like them. Oran's been here before and they're probably the best team we've played all year."

Graviett added two hits for the Eagles.

"We're tickled to death about making it to state, but we had expectations for this bunch to win a state tournament," said Wood. "A week from now we'll feel a lot better about this third place hopefully. But that's what I like about this bunch -- they weren't overly excited about third place because they were expecting to come out and win a state championship."

Oran loses just one senior to graduation in Matt Bucher, who went 0-1 in his final high school game.

"We lose one and he came through big for us at the end of the year in districts and sectionals," said Wood of Bucher. "Hopefully we've got a few kids that can step up and come in a take his place. And these other kids have got to get better."