Oran baseball team earns return trip to Class 1 final four

NAYLOR, Mo. -- The Oran baseball team sealed its invitation to an 11th Class 1 final four with the help of some timely good fortune Wednesday afternoon.

Oran coach Mitch Wood hopes that trend, which helped his team secure a 4-1 victory over Naylor, will continue and allow the Eagles to bring home their first state championship.

"It's no secret," he said. "We're looking for that elusive No. 1, but at the same time, it's like I tell the kids, all we can do is keep getting in position to do something. You can't win it sitting back here watching somebody else go. There's only one way to do it is get up there and try to win it.

"We need a little luck. We got some today."

Naylor first baseman Mark Gargac cut the Oran lead to 2-1 with an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth inning, and Oran still faced a bases-loaded jam with just one out.

Oran left fielder Jacob Priggel gets hit by a pitch during Oran's 4-1 win in a Class 1 state quarterfinal Wednesday in Naylor, Mo. (ADAM VOGLER)

Naylor's Montana Lutes tried to squeeze home a run with a bunt down the third-base line.

Oran reliever Kody Moore raced over to the line and threw home. His throw hit Naylor's Dawson Goodrum then somehow bounced up in the air and directly into catcher Alex Heuring's glove.

"How lucky's that?" Wood said. "Maybe that's where we get started."

Oran got out of the inning without allowing another run before adding two insurance runs in the seventh.

"There in the sixth inning that was our opportunity," Naylor coach Jeff Null said. "The ball hit the runner going home and bounces right to the catcher. That was a tough break right there because nine times out of 10, that goes somewhere else."

Oran relief pitcher Kody Moore lays out to make the throw to catcher Alex Heuring to get a force out at home during the sixth inning Wednesday.

Oran loaded the bases before making an out in the game against Naylor ace Dalton Woodard.

He struck out the next three Oran batters but not before a run scored when a wild strike three went to the backstop.

"It was huge because your kids need to know they can score on him," Wood said. "You can tell them all you want to, when you don't do it, they start thinking about it."

Null also considered it a good start.

"Hey, we got out of that lucky there," Null said. "Bases loaded and nobody out, and we hung around. We hung around. We've kind of done that a few times this year, hang around and then all the sudden something happens."

Oran pitcher Seth Ressel congratulates Blake Carlyle, right, after Carlyle scored during Wednesday's game.

Woodard struck out 10 Oran hitters over the first four innings and 13 in his seven innings of work.

"Overall he has good velocity," Moore said. "That's always a plus in high school baseball. After that he had a curveball, and it was working for him today. It kept us off balance."

Oran's Adam Schaefer also singled out the left-hander's curveball.

"It had a nasty bite because he throws it pretty hard," Schaefer said. "It has that sharp hook. It breaks straight down. It's hard to read."

Schaefer drove home two of Oran's runs, including one with an RBI single in the sixth inning.

Oran catcher Alex Heuring celebrates getting the force out at home on Naylor's Dawson Goodrum in the first inning of Oran's 4-1 win in the Class 1 quarterfinal Wednesday, May 23, in Naylor. (ADAM VOGLER)

"I thought he was going to go with the curveball, and he just hung a good ol' fastball on the outside corner, and I just went with it to right field," Schaefer said. "It was a real easy hit, not trying to overpower it or anything."

Oran starter Seth Ressel pitched five scoreless innings before being relieved by Moore with a 3-0 count on Naylor's Taylor Davis after back-to-back errors by Oran's infield in the sixth inning.

"He pitched well," Wood said. "My big plan for the last probably month of our season is him and [Dalton] Elfrink get us in position to win ballgames, and Kody's been coming in and doing well. We know what plan we're on, and Seth knew that, and so he'd like to finish it of course, but at the same time he knew he probably wouldn't."

Ressel allowed just three hits.

"I just knew I had to keep the ball low," he said. "I obviously don't throw hard, so I had keep it low and my curveball was working very well. Those two things helped me out a lot today."

Oran pitcher Seth Ressel delivers a strike to Naylor's Marcus Rigdon during the first inning Wednesday.

Oran will take a 19-8 record into its second consecutive final four. It finished third last season.

"Hopefully as a senior we can win it because we've never won it at our school," Schaefer said. "It'd be good to go down as the first ones to win first place in school history."

Oran will face Santa Fe (21-1) in the semifinals at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Meador Park in Springfield, Mo.

"I'm as excited as I was the first year I went," Wood said. "I just enjoy the heck out of it. It's a great feeling. We've got a lot of young kids that didn't get to go last year. These kids are a special bunch of kids."

Oran 100 001 2 -- 4 8 4

Naylor 000 001 0 -- 1 4 1

WP -- Seth Ressel. LP -- Dalton Woodard. 2B -- Woodard (N). Multiple hits -- Oran: Ressel 2-3, Alex Heuring 2-3, Adam Schaefer 2-4. Records -- Oran 19-8, Naylor 11-10.