Jackson baseball is no-hit victim in season-ending loss to Lindbergh

ST. LOUIS -- For Lindbergh baseball coach Darin Scott, the performance from Dennis Yingling was the kind that signifies a team ready to make a postseason run.

Yingling wrapped up his complete-game, no-hit bid when he got Jackson's Braeden Dobbs to strike out swinging for the final out in the bottom of the seventh, and the junior lefty was swarmed by teammates and doused in water as he secured the Flyers' 5-0 win over the Indians in a Class 5 sectional Tuesday at Lindbergh High School.

"It's something else. I'm not sure what else to say about that," Scott said. "At this time of the year, that's unbelievable. Those are the type of things that we talk to them about. Those are the type of things you do when you make a run.

Jackson's Gavon Turner fouls off a pitch during the bottom of the second inning in a Class 5 sectional against Lindbergh on Tuesday, May 24, 2016, in St. Louis.Trent Singer ~ tsinger@semissourian.com

"He went out there and threw strikes, got ahead and just did a great job for us."

Yingling's only blemish came in the bottom of the fourth when he issued a one-out walk to Jackson's Colten Weber. He ended the inning with back-to-back strikeouts, screaming into his glove as he walked back to the dugout.

"I knew coming in that I needed my best performance, and it was enough to do it today," said Yingling, who's already committed to continue his playing career at Missouri State. "I heard in the dugout one time, 'He's got a no-no going.' I was like, 'Hey, be quiet there.' I went out and just tried not to think about that. I just threw my game, spotted up fastballs.

"I just felt great out there on the mound today."

Yingling struck out eight of the final 11 batters he faced. He finished with 11 strikeouts.

"We knew what we were getting into," Jackson coach Bryan Austin said. "He has the potential to be a big-time buzzsaw to offenses. He's done it all year against guys, and we knew we were getting into that. You've got to tip your cap to him. He was great, kept our timing off, kept our tempo off. He mixed speeds, mixed locations. He just did a great job overall."

It was also Yingling who got Lindbergh (21-9) on the board in the top of the third.

Simon Desnoyer and Roland Ounanian led off with consecutive singles before a wild pitch moved them both into scoring position. Two batters later, Yingling blasted an 0-2 pitch about 400 feet to the fence in left-center. Jackson center fielder Tyler Knight ran down the ball to rob Yingling of a hit, but Knight was unable to slow his momentum, as both runners tagged up and reached home on the sacrifice to give the Flyers a 2-0 advantage.

"He's a big-time player, steps up in big-time spots and does big-time things," Scott said about Yingling. "Our park's the size of Yellowstone or he probably would've had 10 or 12 home runs this year. You don't see a sacrifice fly score two very often."

Lindbergh added some insurance to its cause in the top of the fifth. Ounanian, who finished 3-for-4, led off with a single, reached second on a passed ball and scored when Danny Dobbs followed with a chopper over the third baseman's head and into left. The left fielder missed his cutoff, allowing Dobbs to advance to second, and Yingling added his third RBI of the day with a base hit up the middle, extending the Flyers' lead to 4-0.

In the top of the sixth, Jackson committed its only error, which came with two outs and allowed an unearned run to score.

"Defensively, I thought we did a good job," Austin said. "There were some things early on that I thought we did not do well where they were able to move some runners up. They got some extra runs, and we felt like they didn't deserve them at that point."

Lindbergh starting pitcher Dennis Yingling, right, is congratulated by catcher Erik Kalfus after Yingling recorded a strikeout to end the bottom of the fourth inning in a Class 5 sectional against Jackson on Tuesday, May 24, 2016, in St. Louis.Trent Singer ~ tsinger@semissourian.com

Weber was tagged with the loss on the mound for the Indians. He allowed five runs (four earned) on seven hits with seven strikeouts, one walk and one hit batter. He was relieved by senior Gavon Turner, who struck out one and gave up a hit in a scoreless seventh.

"Colten threw a great game, he really did," Scott said. "He was in and out. He's a great pitcher. Obviously he'll be right back in it next year, and I thought he did a good job keeping them in the ball game."

Weber escaped a bases-loaded situation in the top of the second and didn't allow a hit until the top of the third. He also stranded the only extra-base hit of the game, a leadoff double by Caleb Newberry, in the top of the fourth.

"Colten had great stuff today, did a great job," Austin said. "They barreled probably three or four pitches off him, so he had very good stuff as well. We were just not able to do it offensively."

Yingling's no-hitter didn't come without some help from his defense. Brandon Meissner back-handed a ball deep in the gap at shortstop to rob Ryan Mize of a hit in the bottom of the first, second baseman Mike Murphy corralled a slow-roller to prevent Triston Thele from getting on base in the bottom of the fifth, and Jon Halstead ran down a deep fly ball along the right-field line to prevent Jarrett Newell from getting aboard in the bottom of the sixth.

"Brendan Meissner made a really nice back-hand play in the very first inning, or we're not even talking about this," Scott said. "We've really worked hard on our defense. We really take pride in attacking the baseball, and they've done a nice job on defense. Obviously Dennis can come up with some big pitches when he has to. It makes it easier to play defense when you're also scoring runs and extending leads, and we were able to execute a couple times."

Austin said his team's approach at the plate was to attack fastballs early in the count, but Yingling had no trouble mixing up his off-speed pitches to keep the Indians out of sorts.

"I think it was one of those situations where as the game got going, he got better, and that's been his motto. His velocity increases as the innings keep going, and he did that," Austin said. "Unfortunately we got down early where we were 2-0, 3-0. We were not able to run a whole lot of offense, not saying we had the base runners to do it. That's just a tough arm to see.

Jackson starting pitcher Colten Weber delivers a pitch during the top of the first inning in a Class 5 sectional against Lindbergh on Tuesday, May 24, 2016, in St. Louis.Trent Singer ~ tsinger@semissourian.com

"I was really happy with how we battled at the plate. We hit some balls. We fouled some pitches off. We just could not make solid contact off of him."

Yingling threw his first no-hitter of the season on March 29 in a 6-0 win over Francis Howell North. He was a sophomore on last year's Lindbergh team, which watched its season end in a 2-0 loss to the Indians in the state sectionals.

The Flyers advance to face St. Louis University High (19-5), which defeated Lafayette (Wildwood) 5-1 in eight innings, in a state quarterfinal on Thursday.

"You're only as good as your next start," Scott said. "We've got to go through the quarterfinal now, so Step 1 is complete. Now we've got to get through Step 2."

Jackson concludes its season with a 21-13 mark, as five seniors -- Tristan Burdette, Skylar Pease, Thele, Turner and Mize -- graduate from the team.

Austin was complimentary of his assistant coaches and upperclassmen for helping guide the program to back-to-back Class 5 District 1 titles, a feat that's considered rare among larger schools.

"They've led our program very well," Austin said. "They've done what it takes in the offseason to prepare for this season. They've done everything that we've asked. They followed the template of how they saw it get done last year. They followed that and did a great job, and they're passing that along to the kids behind them.

"I feel really good about our guys that are returning because they have a lot of postseason experience now as well, but you can't be more happy with those five seniors going out with another district title and having a lot of success because this is very hard to do."

Lindbergh 002 021 0 -- 5 8 0

Jackson 000 000 0 -- 0 0 1

WP -- Dennis Yingling. LP -- Colten Weber. 2B -- Caleb Newberry (L). Multiple hits -- Lindbergh: Roland Ounanian 3-4.