Oran baseball team falls in Class 1 state semifinal

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- The script was so familiar that it felt like a repeat ending was inevitable.

The Oran baseball team entered the bottom of the seventh inning trailing an opponent it had swapped the lead with multiple times.

"We done it in the quarterfinal game," said sophomore Kody Moore, recalling the Eagles' dramatic come-from-behind win over Naylor last week. "I thought we were going to do it again. I had all the confidence in the world we were going to do it again. We just came up a little short this time."

The finale was a disappointing one for Oran on Wednesday. The Eagles never got a rally started in the final inning and lost to Liberal 6-5 in their Class 1 state semifinal at Meador Park.

Oran sent the top of its lineup to the plate in the bottom of the seventh, but Liberal relief pitcher Guillermo Rojo got Moore to hit a swinging bunt down the first-base line for the first out. Then he got Dalton Elfrink to ground out to second before retiring Tyler Heuring on a fly ball to center field.

"There ain't much you can talk about," Moore said. "We lost, and we've got to wait until next year."

Oran, which is making its 10th appearance at the final four, will play St. Elizabeth, a 9-8 loser to LaPlata later Wednesday, for third place at 7 p.m. today. The Eagles never have finished first or fourth at the final four.

Liberal took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning while the Oran offense struggled early on against Bulldogs starter Colten Selvey.

Selvey struck out four batters in the first inning and then two more in the second inning before the Eagles scored three runs in the third.

"We've been pretty good at that this year -- adjusting to the pitching," Moore said. "The first couple innings they might keep us limited, but our bats will come around. They've come around all year long."

Moore led off the third inning with a walk and later scored on a wild pitch. Elfrink was hit by a pitch and scored on an RBI single by Heuring, who eventually also scored on a wild pitch.

In all, Liberal was charged with six wild pitches and one passed ball, which was particularly costly given the expansive area between home plate and the backstop at Meador Park.

"If they'd had a catcher, I don't know if we would've scored one or two runs," Oran coach Mitch Wood said. "That's kind of the way we've been playing here lately is people have been giving us games. This bunch, Liberal, didn't step up and give us the game."

Liberal took the lead back with two runs in the top of the fourth inning, but Oran answered quickly by scoring two runs to take a 5-4 lead in the bottom half of the inning, one on a wild pitch and the other on an RBI single by Moore.

After two of the first three Liberal batters reached base in the top of the sixth inning, Oran starter Zac Chasteen was relieved by Moore, who gave up back-to-back singles and two runs to put up Liberal by its final margin of 6-5.

"It's a tough situation, but I like to think that I can handle that," Moore said about entering with runners on base. "I just didn't do my best today."

Oran had a chance to answer once again in the bottom of the inning.

After leading off with a single, Blake Carlyle reached third base with just one out and No. 8 hitter Alex Heuring at the plate.

Wood called for Heuring to bunt as part of a squeeze play, but Heuring wasn't able to make contact with the pitch, which was thrown well outside, and Carlyle was caught in a rundown.

"You got one out and you got the eight, nine hitters up," Wood said. "Even though our nine hitter had a big hit, average-wise it's not going to be very good with eight, nine. And you know, it's a 2-1 count. He's coming in with a strike. I just thought it was a good time."

Heuring ended up drawing a walk, but Dylan Dannenmueller struck out to end the inning.

"That's the way coach Wood's played baseball at Oran forever -- take a chance, die trying, whatever," Moore said. "We played the same way he's played when he's come up here the past eight or nine times. It just didn't turn out."

And neither did the rally-to-victory ending the Oran players expected.

"We've done it enough all year, especially these past couple games," said Dannenmueller, who doubled and scored in the fourth inning. "I honestly thought there toward the end we were going to pull it out. I had no doubt in my mind, but it just didn't turn our way this time."