Marion C. Early turns up its offense, squelches Oran's

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Riding a 10-game winning streak, Oran junior Nathan Seyer warned the Eagles' remaining opponents about this week's state tournament at Taylor Stadium.

"They better hope they can score," he said after a quarterfinal win, "because we're gonna."

It turns out Marion C. Early was more than ready for Wednesday's Class 1A semifinal.

The Panthers brought their offense - and added the overpowering pitching of senior right-hander Chris Gerleman - to roll to an 8-4 victory. Marion C. Early (19-5) blasted 11 hits to build an 8-0 lead after six innings.

"We haven't hit the ball like that in awhile," Gerleman said. "We've been waiting to break out all year, and we picked the right time to do it. This was probably our best game all year."

Gerleman was 3-for-3 with four RBIs, but was just as impressive on the mound.

Facing a team that outscored its previous four opponents 57-9, Gerleman limited Oran (19-5) to three hits through the first five innings.

Gerleman said Seyer's pregame comments quickly made the rounds with his teammates.

"We saw that one," Gerleman said. "We thought they were really confident, and we wanted to shut them out bad."

Gerleman did his part through the first five innings, but with a 6-0 lead, Panthers coach Mike McHolland sent reliever Tyler Doke to the hill in an effort to save Gerleman's arm for five more innings in today's championship game against New Haven.

Oran took advantage of the switch, scoring four runs in the top of the seventh on just one hit.

Two walks and a hit batter by Doke loaded the bases for Tyler Cookson, who ripped a run-scoring single to left field. Trey Graviett followed with an RBI walk to close the score to 8-2.

A wild pitch and another walk closed the score to 8-3 before McHolland put Gerleman back on the mound to finish the game with one out and the bases loaded.

"I wanted to save him as much as we could," McHolland said, "but with the tying run at the plate we got to come back with our ace."

Gerleman walked Patrick Friga to make the score 8-4, but eventually recorded the final two outs to end the game.

Gerleman (11-2) fanned 11 Eagles to improve his season strikeout total to 159.

Seyer said Gerleman threw hard, but he wasn't citing that as the main reason behind the Eagles' silent bats.

"I don't know what our problem was," Seyer said. "Our heads weren't in the game. I think it was overconfidence."

Cookson and Ryne Wood split Oran's two hits.

"We brought the offense here," McHolland said. "One through seven" in the batting order "got big hits. We couldn't ask for anything better." Marion C. Early roughed up Graviett (7-4) for three runs in the first inning, two in the third, one in the fourth and two in the sixth. The Oran ace allowed all 11 hits in 5 2/3 innings, with five walks and four strikeouts.

Trey definitely wasn't at his best," Oran coach Mitch Wood said. "They hit him pretty good. His outs were even hard. Everything they hit was hard." It could have been worse, but the Panthers lost five runners on the bases with an assortment of baserunning blunders.

"We're aggressive on the bases, but we were too aggressive today," McHolland said.

Oran, making its first state appearance since a third-place finish in 1999, will try to equal that accomplishment today at 11 a.m. against Sedalia Sacred Heart (16-4). The Gremlins lost to New Haven in the second semifinal, 9-4.

"From Day 1 we wanted to win a state championship," Mitch Wood said. "Hopefully they're as disappointed as I am. Maybe we'll bounce back."