McKinnie plays pitch count, punches Chaffee’s final four ticket in thriller

One-hundred-and-five: The number that every starting pitcher dreads when tearing through an opposing lineup.

Entering the seventh inning with a pitch count of 98, Levi McKinnie’s home quarterfinal outing against Portageville appeared to be waning, and coach Aaron Horrell knew it.

The senior got six scoreless innings against one of the top offenses in all of Southeast Missouri, averaging 9.1 runs per game but never scratching one across against the star upperclassman arm.

With just seven pitches left to throw, it was obvious that McKinnie wouldn’t be able to finish out the game.

In comes Kade Atkins, McKinnie’s senior teammate who’s regularly come in to close out some big games, including Chaffee’s quarterfinal a year before – deja vu, if you will.

Atkins recorded the first two outs of the inning, but a pair of errors later and seeing the tying run on second base, Horrell made an unusual call: bringing McKinnie right back in.

Horrell’s openly fought off Chaffee’s doubters all season long, and the pregame expectations of Portageville to make McKinnie uncomfortable were no exception.

After a dominant first six from the senior, Horrell gave the ball back to him to get one final out on those seven pitches.

It worked.

“I’ve had a lot of coaches in the area, and no disrespect to them,” Horrell began. “They talk about, ‘You can't beat this Portageville team with velocity, you've gotta throw junk at them, and they rip fastballs.’

“No disrespect to anybody, and I mean that sincerely, but they don't have Levi McKinnie, and I do.”

Rylan Partin sent the 1-0 count to the deepest part of the yard in right field, but the reaching arm of Carson Spies reeled in the final out of a 2-1 Chaffee victory.

It looked as if Portageville might have won that final at-bat, but Spies had other plans, giving his classmate on the mound one more big play to keep his win intact.

“That kid is a dawg,” McKinnie laughed. “He saved me right there.”

With the high-80s fastball and some great fielding behind him, McKinnie diced up the Bulldogs all day long and earned the win to send Chaffee back to the final four.

Part of the first-ever back-to-back final four squads in program history, the exceptional two-way prowess of McKinnie has made him one of the most revered players in the region.

Now, reputation or not, he’s been a centric force in pushing Chaffee back to the biggest stage in high school baseball, and those Devils are just two wins from a gold medal.

“I know what he's capable of, and I'd trust him against anybody,” Horrell said.

“I don't care what a scouting report says. They don't know what he's got inside his heart.”