Leopold captures Oak Ridge baseball tourney crown

~ The Wildcats downed the host Blue Jays 6-3

OAK RIDGE, Mo. -- With a run already home and still no outs in the bottom of the third inning, the Oak Ridge Bluejays were threatening to take the lead from Leopold in the championship game of their own tournament.

Oak Ridge runners took leads from first and second base as teammate Kyle Rohde grounded a ball to Leopold second baseman Cole Wesbecher. Wesbecher quickly shoveled the ball to shortstop John Bohnsack at second, who tossed a strike to first baseman Lance Seiler. Seiler saw Oak Ridge's Brett Thomas attempting to score and got the ball to catcher Joe Elfrink in plenty of time for Thomas to be tagged out.

"They probably would tie it there, maybe even take the lead," Leopold coach Jacob Greten said. "That was a good play. Our players knew what they were doing. It surprised me."

It was a flawless 4-6-3-2 triple play in the score book and the most impressive play in Leopold's 6-3 victory Saturday.

"I've never had one of those turned behind me," Leopold pitcher Ryan Davis said, "but it was pretty good."

The play only stalled Oak Ridge's scoring, though. After retiring Leopold in order in the top of the fourth, the Blue Jays tied the game in the bottom of the inning.

"The triple play, that to me wasn't that big a deal," Oak Ridge coach Jason Niswonger said. "They played it great. I think sending Brett home was the right thing to do. In Class 1 baseball usually defense it not stellar, so we were going to push it and they made a heck of a play."

But the play's biggest benefit didn't show up until the sixth inning, when Davis, Leopold's ace, was able to return to the mound.

"It lowered my pitch count a lot and it made me able to throw in the sixth inning because coach only lets us throw to 100 pitches," Davis said. "It lowered my pitch count so I could throw into another inning because I was wanting to throw pretty bad."

Davis was happy to be on to pitch what he called a "big game," and Greten had planned for him to get the ball in this game before the tournament began.

"We've never beat Oak Ridge and I figured that I was a senior and I wanted to beat them my senior year," Davis said. "We've never won first place in this tournament. We've never got anything in this tournament, I don't think."

Niswonger, who used his No. 1 pitcher Thomas in Friday's semifinal victory, put much less emphasis on the championship game, choosing instead to plan ahead for a regular-season game between the two schools this week.

"Well, it would be awesome to win our own tournament," he said. "That would be great, but we've got bigger prizes down the road. Wednesday we play Leopold and our ace will be going against some other pitcher for them. It's a conference game. It's a district game. There's a lot more on the line in that game."

Leopold never trailed Saturday. The Wildcats took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on a two-run double from Lance Seiler. Seiler provided two insurance runs late in the game, one with a leadoff homer in the sixth inning and another with a bases-loaded walk in the seventh.

"He's been really hitting the ball well now," Greten said. "I don't know who was more surprised by that home run -- him or me."

The homer was the first of the season for Seiler and only the second for Leopold in nine games this season. Davis has the other.

The Wildcats (6-3) took the lead for good during a two-run fourth inning that was aided by an Oak Ridge (5-5) error in the outfield.

"Leopold is a good team," Niswonger said. "If we lost to a bad team today, I'd be more down, but we're right at .500 without one of our best players and without one of our best pitchers, so we're in good shape."

Niswonger was referring to senior Garret Light, who had surgery Tuesday to repair torn cartilage in his knee. Niswonger said Light could be back in the lineup as early as this week.

While there still are two games against Oak Ridge left on Leopold's schedule, round one and a championship trophy belong to the Wildcats.

"We're having a pretty good year and these guys are in our district, so hopefully that tells everybody what's going on and that we're just as good as anybody in the district," Davis said.

Leopold 200 021 1 -- 6 5 2

Oak Ridge 001 110 0 -- 3 8 2

WP -- Ryan Davis. LP -- Lucas Rohde. 2B -- Lance Seiler (L), Logan Mangels (OR), Lance Rohde (OR). HR -- Seiler (L), Brett Thomas (OR). Multiple hits -- Leopold: Seiler 2-3. Oak Ridge: Thomas 2-2, La. Rohde 2-3. Records -- Leopold 6-3, Oak Ridge 5-5.