Late rally lifts Jackson

HILLSBORO, Mo. -- The Jackson baseball team fell behind by a run in the top half of the sixth inning in Saturday's Class 5 District 1 semifinal.

Indians fans, players and especially the Indians' coaches believed the Hillsboro player that eventually scored the go ahead run had been caught stealing earlier in the inning, making the RBI single that allowed him to score a little extra painful.

"I think that's where having seniors makes a big difference," said Jackson coach Tatum Kitchen, who started eight seniors and a junior. "There was no imploding. They didn't all the sudden 'Bang, bang, bang!' and it was over. They just kind of [said], 'OK,' and it was back to work."

The Indians replied by scoring four runs on four hits in the bottom half of the inning before hanging on for a 6-4 victory on Hillsboro's home field.

"There's been a bunch of games where we've fallen behind, and coach knows that we're a bunch seniors," shortstop Laban Petzoldt said. "We've been through this before, so he just tells us to keep our heads up."

Jackson fell behind 2-0 in the second inning when starter Steven Eddy gave up a two-RBI double to Hillsboro's Chance Gemberling.

"I wasn't spotting up as well. I was keeping it up in the zone more instead of keeping it down," said Eddy, who said he had trouble locating his fastball in particular. "There I was leaving it up way too much. The kid just pounded it."

The Hawks had a chance to add to their lead in the third inning but Jackson right fielder Cole Blanton made a perfect throw to first baseman Kyle James, whose relay threw out a runner at home for the third out.

"It was a huge play for us just to stay within two because, man, if you get four or five runs behind it changes the game because we don't hit a bunch of home runs," Kitchen said. "We just try to stay with them and score. We try to bunt, make things happen. We can't get way behind, especially in the playoffs. It's so different."

Petzoldt evened the score in the bottom half of the inning with two-run single.

"Well lately I've kind of been struggling, so I just put my foot down right away and just swung," Petzoldt said before adding that is something he normally only does in two-strike counts. "I wasn't going to try to do anything spectacular with it. I was just trying to have a team at-bat."

It was Blanton who started the sixth-inning rally with a one-out base hit. Blanton later scored on a wild pitch before Ryan O'Rear, James and Petzoldt all singled home runs.

"We never hit the ball real well all day," Kitchen said. "We put the ball in play there at the end and had just a few good bounces go our way. That was really about it. Like I said, we didn't hammer the baseball at all. We played a very average game and were fortunate to win."

Jackson [20-6] -- marking the first season any Jackson baseball team has won at least 20 games -- will face top-seed Seckman at 4:30 p.m. Monday for the district championship.

"Seckman is very good," Kitchen said. "I think they are the clear No. 1 seed. I don't think there was any question. They can swing it up and down the lineup [and] the pitching we've seen from them is excellent.

"They beat us at their place. The only catch was we played them on their [artificial] turf, which was different than this. It'll be a different game, but at the same time they're so good offensively. We're just going to try to stay with them, get into the late innings with a close game and try to win it."

Hillsboro 020 001 1 -- 4 9 1

Jackson 002 004 x -- 10 10 1

WP -- Steven Eddy. LP -- Collin Ijames. 2B -- Chase Gemberling (H), Ryan O'Rear (J). Multiple hits -- Hillsboro: Jacob Moore 3-4, Gemberling 3-4; Jackson: O'Rear 2-3, Kyle James 2-3, Laban Petzoldt 3-4. Records -- Jackson 20-6.