Central baseball season ends with nail-biter

~ Farmington escaped a bases-loaded jam in the seventh for a 3-2 win

FARMINGTON, Mo. -- With every inning of a Class 5 District 1 first-round baseball game between Central and Farmington the momentum changed.

For the Tigers it swung in the wrong direction late in the game and the Knights held on for a 3-2 victory Saturday afternoon at Wilson-Rozier Field in Farmington, Missouri.

Central, which played from behind most of the game, had all the momentum going in to the bottom of the sixth inning.

Tigers designated hitter Tyler Myers worked a full count before hitting a two-out single to right that scored first baseman Trevor Propst to knot it at 2-2.

Central batter Hayden Lynn and Farmington catcher Jordan Ankrom react to the called strike that ended their district baseball game. Farmington won 3-2.

But it swung in Farmington's favor in its half of the inning. After starting pitcher Chase Hagerty walked the leadoff batter, he fielded a bunt from the next batter and sent his throw over Propst at first to put runners on second and third with no outs.

A sacrifice bunt scored the game-winning run.

"That's why I love this game," Hagerty said. "One little thing can change the momentum. A guy that's barely played came through with probably the biggest hit of all of us, of all of our games this season, probably his career. [Tyler Myers] came up huge. ... Then again we make an error; I make that bad throw to first and it just flipped, turned upside down. It's hard to come back from that, but I'm glad we battled."

The Tigers loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh before a called third strike on a full count ended their season.

"Through the entire season, honestly, we've been down probably 90 percent of the time," Hagerty said. "Coming into this game I talked to them, like, 'We've been in this position millions of times. It's nothing new to us. It might be a bigger stage, but they've been ahead of teams a lot more. They beat us earlier in the year. If we persevere, I think we can slip one out.'"

Farmington took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI double from first baseman Connor Forsythe.

"I'm very proud because I don't know early in the year how we'd have handled getting behind with the big double early," Kitchen said. "Early in the year, Chase would kind of carry us on some games, and he'd keep us close and we'd try to score. But we handled it great."

The Knights plated their second run when a third strike slipped past catcher Josh Morse in the third inning, but Morse redeemed himself when he led off the next inning with a home run to cut the deficit in half.

"You look at two errors there by our pitcher and catcher -- well, those are our two best players," Kitchen said. "The next inning he comes up and hits one over the fence. Some of the kids we have are like that; they're tough-minded and they're down for a battle."

The Tigers found themselves with an opportunity in the fifth after a one-out single and back-to-back walks loaded the bases for Hagerty.

Farmington was able to turn a double play to end the inning and swing the game back in its favor.

"The biggest play of the game, well, the seventh inning was big, but I thought the double play," Kitchen said. "With Chase coming up there I thought, 'Hey, he may really lay into one here.' They rolled a great double play, close play at first and he's out."

"I hate it for our seniors," Kitchen said. "Of course you always hate losing the last game, but you look at the three we had in the lineup -- Tyler Myles had a big hit, [Matt] Chism played great at short, [Trevor] Propst was good at first and had a big pick for us on a ball in the dirt. And Propst is a good enough hitter where they put him on in the seventh, so that's kind of a hat-off to him. I hate it for them, but boy we really appreciate what they've done."

Farmington will face No. 2 Poplar Bluff at 7 p.m. Monday in Farmington.

"It wasn't like we killed ourselves," Kitchen said. "They're good. I wouldn't be shocked if they win districts and made it to the playoffs."

Central 000 101 0 -- 2 5 1

Farmington 101 001 x -- 3 6 0

WP -- Brett Mann. LP -- Chase Hagerty. HR -- Josh Morse (C). 2B -- Logan Winder (F), Connor Forsythe (F), Brayden Krause (F). Multiple hits -- Farmington: Jordan Ankrom 2-3.