Oran baseball team returns to Class 1 quarterfinals

COOTER, Mo. -- At one point during Monday afternoon's Class 1 sectional, Oran pitcher Seth Ressel heard a member of the Cooter baseball team deliver a message to his teammate.

"I think I heard one kid say in the dugout when I was about to pitch, 'Here comes the curveball,'" Ressel said. "But it was going to be a fastball."

It was a sign of the kind of day Ressel had while allowing just two hits in his team's 5-1 victory.

"Hitting your spots, going inside, curveball, going outside," said Ressel, providing a checklist of the things that led to his success. "Keeping them on their toes, not knowing what's coming next."

Ressel retired the first seven batters of the game before allowing a single to Austin Phelps in the bottom of the third inning.

Oran shortstop Kody Moore fields a Cooter ground ball during the sixth inning of the Class 1 sectional game Monday, May 20, 2013 in Cooter, Mo. (Fred Lynch)

"He was on right from the beginning," Oran coach Mitch Wood said. "He looked good, threw a lot of strikes. His curveball was working. He had everything working. He really threw the ball well today."

Phelps eventually scored Cooter's only run after catcher Alex Heuring and Ressel both committed throwing errors trying to pick runners off base.

"We had faced him before and we thought we'd put the ball in play, and we did," Cooter coach Allen Crawford said. "I don't think we struck out but maybe four or five times, but we didn't really hit the ball really hard. We hit it, but we just didn't stick it. He did a good job. He throws a lot of breaking stuff, a lot of changeups. He is hard to wait back on."

Ressel struck out five batters and walked just one.

"My command, I feel like, this year is so much better than it was because I'm hitting inside spots now," Ressel. "Last year I couldn't do that."

Oran starter Seth Ressel pitches to a Cooter batter during the first inning of the Class 1 sectional. Ressel allowed just two hits in pitching a complete game.

Ressel provided himself with a lead before he ever took the mound. He doubled to lead off the game and later scored on an infield error.

"I told our kids yesterday after practice -- I told them that today's game would be simple plays," Crawford said. "The game would be decided on simple plays. As usual, I was right. Oran made a few more of the plays than what we did."

Oran (19-5) added three runs in the third inning with the help of two more Cooter (20-9) errors and an infield hit by No. 6 hitter Hunter Schlosser. Cooter shortstop Tyler Mclevain fielded the hit cleanly, but Schlosser beat out a good throw.

"Hunter's been hitting the ball lately, so I was confident he'd make contact," Wood said. "Our bottom of the order -- their averages are not very good, but here lately they seem like they've been hitting the ball a lot better. That's what it takes. It takes the right time of year, getting the key hit. And that was a key hit for us."

Schlosser fouled off multiple pitches and worked the count full before his hit.

"I was trying to protect the plate, make good contact and hit the top half of the ball," Schlosser said.

Oran scored its final run in the top of the seventh inning when a Jacob Priggel single scored Alex Heuring, who doubled with two outs. In all, Oran scored its five runs on just six hits.

"There wasn't much hitting going on," Crawford said. "The pitching was good on both sides. Our pitchers threw well, they threw well, so it just come down to making simple plays. Whether you're playing for St. Louis or no matter who, if you don't make simple plays you're going to lose. Our kids know that."

Oran will host Naylor, which beat Bakersfield 6-1 on Monday, in a state quarterfinal Wednesday afternoon.

It will be the third consecutive season the teams have met in the quarterfinals. Oran won 4-1 at Naylor last season and 14-13 in a wild affair at home in 2011.

"We're just excited to be playing again," said Wood, whose retirement from coaching was postponed by the win. "We know [Naylor's] got a good team. It's kind of like [Cooter] where everybody was saying they were terrible in the fall -- couldn't do this, couldn't do that -- but to be playing this time of year, you've got to do some things right, so I think it will be a battle for us. Fortunately we're going to be at home, so hopefully our kids will be ready to play."

Crawford, who led Cooter to two final fours in nine seasons as the team's coach, is retiring after 36 years of coaching.

"We competed," Crawford said. "I think over the years we're 3-9 against Oran. They're just a hard team to beat. You've got to play your best, and today we didn't play our best and that's what happens."

Oran 103 000 1 -- 5 6 3

Cooter 001 000 0 -- 1 2 4

WP -- Seth Ressel. LP -- Brandon Bridges. 2B -- Ressel (O), Alex Heuring (O), Dustin Gebhardt (O). Multiple hits -- Oran: Ressel 2-3. Records -- Oran 19-5, Cooter 20-9.