Jackson baseball receives top district seed, embraces postseason grind

For the first time since 2019, the Jackson baseball team received the No. 1 seed for its district as the 29-6 Indians finished as the top overall team in the Class 6 District 1 regular season.

The Indians outdueled a number of St. Louis powerhouse teams such as No. 2 Seckman (20-11), No. 3 Mehlville (21-6) and more, defeating the second-seeded Jaguars on the road in an 11-3 victory on Apr. 12 and finishing 4-0 in district play across the 2023 season.

“Our boys have earned it. They put in the work,” Indians coach Josh Roach said. “We've traveled, I feel like, all over the state of Missouri and Illinois to play high-level competition and our boys – they can beat anybody in the state. To be able to get the recognition as the No. 1 seed in a good district that has good teams, that's something to be proud of for these young men.”

While the Indians haven’t received the top seed since the 2019 season, they haven’t won a district title since 2018 when Jackson defeated Poplar Bluff 5-2 to claim the Class 5 District 1 title at Cape Central High School.

On the run for title defense, the 2019 Indians faltered in the district semifinal against eventual district champion Hillsboro, losing 8-6 with Roach in the dugout as an assistant to head coach Bryan Austin. Two coaching changes later, Roach returns to lead the charge for Jackson and will look to have his team defend its regular season crown.

“We have prepared our players in as best a way possible for them to be ready for the district tournament,” Roach said. “They've been in close games this season. They've seen good-quality arms all over the state. We’ve played high-level teams many times throughout the season and we think we feel like we have prepared them about as best as we can prepare them for the district tournament.

“The exciting thing is that we're playing our best baseball right now. That was our goal. When we started the season, we said we were not really concerned with how we start, but we wanted to be at our best at the end of it. We feel like we're playing really, really well right now.”

With just six losses in 35 games, Jackson stands to be one of the best teams in Class 6 both by record and by state ranking, currently a consensus top-10 team in the class and having multiple wins against other Class 6-contending teams from around the state.

While the Indians still have a three-game district to escape, there stands a path to the Indians’ first-ever appearance in the final four with a district championship as Jackson appears likely to host a Class 6 quarterfinal in the event the team makes it out of district play.

“If we can continue to play like we have been playing, I don't believe there's any team in the district that is better than we are,” Roach said. “If we do get out of districts and get into that quarterfinal, I feel like we have a really good chance to make it to the state.

“They're gonna get a full dose of John-Paul [Sauer] and they're gonna get a full dose of Caden [Bogenpohl]. They're gonna have to be very, very good to beat those two guys and I just feel like that’s gonna be really hard for anybody to do in this state. I think our chances of getting to the state tournament are really high if we get through our district.”