Oran baseball team drops Class 1 state semifinal

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Wednesday morning's Class 1 semifinal felt eerily familiar for the Oran baseball team.

There was the pivotal missed opportunity.

There were the five errors.

Oran center fielder Blake Carlyle reacts after being thrown out at first to start the eighth inning of he Eagles' 3-2 eight-inning loss to the Santa Fe Chiefs in the Class 1 semifinal game Wednesday, May 30, in Springfield. Oran will play in the third place game Thursday at 10 a.m. (Adam Vogler)

And there was the one-run loss.

"It's pretty much the same story," junior Kody Moore said. "We know the end of it."

The Eagles fell to Santa Fe 3-2 in eight innings in a game that featured many parallels to last season's semifinal loss.

A year ago Oran committed five errors in a 6-5 loss to Liberal in a game where the Eagles had the tying run on third base with one out in the sixth inning and did not score in part thanks to a failed squeeze attempt.

Moore also was on the mound when the deciding run scored in both games.

While he surrendered back-to-back hits and the lead after entering in relief last season, he worked out of a fifth-inning jam after entering with two runners on base and did not allow a hit to the first 14 batters he faced.

"It's definitely a little bit more exhilarating just because it's the state championship," Moore said. "But it don't mean nothing now."

Santa Fe's No. 3 hitter Dalton Wilkinson recorded the first hit off Moore with two outs in the top of eighth when he ripped a double down the left-field line.

Oran elected to intentionally walk pitcher Andrew Curry before Moore issued another walk to Keaton Graf.

"He hadn't threw that many innings in a while," Oran coach Mitch Wood said after suggesting Moore might have been tiring. "The Chaffee game was probably the last time he did, but that's just a tough situation."

Moore pitched nine innings in a 2-1 win over Chaffee on May 4.

Moore induced a ground ball from the next batter he faced Wednesday. The ball was fielded cleanly by shortstop Seth Ressel, but his throw to second was a little off the mark, although it looked to glance off second baseman Adam Schaefer.

"Just a throw to second," Wood said, clearly dejected. "It was maybe not perfect, may not have been off enough. You know, who knows? Just didn't catch it, but that's part of it."

A run scored on the play, and Curry retired the Eagles in order in the bottom of the inning to seal his team's win.

"Obviously it hurt a little bit more than any other error, but that's high school baseball," Moore said. "Nobody's going to make all the plays. There's going to be errors."

Another Oran error helped Santa Fe score a run in the top of the first inning. A pitch from Oran starter Dalton Elfrink got away from catcher Alex Heuring but did not roll all the way to the backstop.

Santa Fe's Andrew Smith was retreating back to third base when Heuring threw the ball away behind Elfrink, which allowed Smith to score.

"We put them in a position to make the plays," Wood said. "It's what you tell them all year long, you try to get in those positions."

Oran replied with two runs on three hits and an error in the bottom of the first inning to take a 2-1 lead.

Heuring delivered an RBI double in the inning, which was Oran's only extra-base hit.

"He hadn't shown any offspeed yet, so I was sitting back on that fastball and put a good swing on it and drove in an early run," Heuring said.

Elfrink, who allowed four hits and one run over 3 1/3 innings on the mound, hit a one-out single in the sixth inning and advanced to second on freshman Jacob Priggel's sacrifice bunt.

A throwing error on Schaefer's grounder to third appeared to give Elfrink a chance to score the go-ahead run, but he tripped rounding third base.

"Elfrink fell down and sprained his ankle," Wood said. "Hell, that could've been the ballgame right there."

Wood said there was no doubt he would have sent Elfrink home on the play.

"Oh yeah," he said. "He was going the whole time. Then he fell down. I kept sending him when he was down. I said, 'Keep going, keep going' because they were looking to second fixing to throw it, trying to get Schaefer out."

Santa Fe coach Josh Fisher saw the play unfold from the third-base dugout.

"I noticed he rolled his ankle," Fisher said. "That was one of the first things I saw. I knew that if he was going to go hard, I knew he was going to be huge. That could've been the game-winner for them.

"That was big for us. That was big."

The loss means Oran will leave its 11th final four still without a state championship. The Eagles, who will play Sturgeon for third place at 10 a.m. today, never have finished first or fourth.

With peculiar plays and uncharacteristic performances becoming the norm for Oran at the final four, talk of a jinx has started.

"Coming in I didn't believe it at all," Moore said. "I know we haven't won one yet, and it's still coming. But everybody think so. Everybody thinks it's a curse, but we've just got to play ball. We just don't have good luck. Our luck runs out when we get up here."