Oran baseball team upends district rival Advance

ADVANCE, Mo. -- Thomas Trankler did a little bit of everything on Friday.

The senior right-handed hurler pitched a complete game and allowed two hits but also gave the Oran baseball team a boost at the plate with four RBIs on 3-of-4 hitting, leading the Eagles to an 8-1 victory over Class 1 District 2 rival Advance at Advance City Park.

"He went out there and threw strikes, and with the big hits he got, he came through," Oran coach Joe Bickings said. "I know yesterday [against Woodland], he wasn't staying back [in the box]. In his first at-bat, he wasn't doing that as well. I tried to remind him, and he came through."

After giving up a hit and an unearned run in the bottom of the first inning, Trankler provided a two-out, bases-clearing double to right-center field in the top of the second to give Oran (11-3) a 3-1 advantage. Jacob Priggel added a two-run double two batters later, and the Eagles carried a comfortable 5-1 lead into the third frame.

"He's a senior, so he's been around. We kind of expect that from him," Bickings said about Trankler. "He'll get down on himself because he expects it himself, so we've got to kind of get him back to reality and keep him in check."

Bickings took a trip to the mound and said he reminded Trankler to calm down after allowing a run during the first inning. Trankler responded by limiting Advance (5-14) to only one hit for the remainder of the game, finishing with nine strikeouts and three walks.

"We always tell him, 'Control what you can control.'" Bickings said. "Errors are going to happen, and all we can do is go after the next pitch and stay in the game. ... He went out there, and that's what happened. He started throwing strikes again, and he didn't let anything affect him after that."

The Eagles added to their lead in the top of the sixth when a hit batter, a walk and a single by Tanner McVay loaded the bases for Trankler, who added his fourth RBI of the day on a base hit to shallow left field. Priggel reached home on a two-out, bases-loaded walk, and Hunter Schlosser scored the final run of the game when he reached on an error.

With one out and runners on first and second in the bottom of the frame, Trankler got some help from his defense when shortstop Ben Heuring fielded a ground ball up the middle, touched second base and turned a double play to retire the side.

Bickings said Heuring made the switch from second base to shortstop this season and said he's become a solid fit.

"He's always been a great defensive player, and we've just been working with him and getting his arm strength up so he can throw it to first from shortstop," Bickings said. "... He's a smart individual. He knows how to play the game. Him being out there and being a senior, he was able to make a big play."

Advance coach Chris Asmus said his team has played two of its better games this week in an 18-0 win over Richland and a 7-3 loss to Bell City, but he still wants to see more.

"We've hit the ball hard this year, just right at people, I feel like," Asmus said. "We keep telling the kids, 'Keep hitting it hard. The ball's going to fall. Keep putting it into play, and it'll fall.' ... The bats obviously have to wake up. We've got to score more than one run to win games, but to me, 8-1 doesn't reflect the game we just played. We had one bad inning, and there were times we could've gotten out of that inning with limited harm."

Preston Wuebker pitched a complete game and took the loss for the Hornets. He struck out three batters, walked five and gave up nine hits and eight runs (seven earned).

"Obviously this is a district rival, and I want the kids to see that we can come out and compete with the best," Asmus said. "The two teams we've played in the last week, Bell City and Oran, they're the best teams in our district, but I feel like the way we've competed and the way we've come out and started to show progression and stuff we've shown all year, it's starting to add up finally."

The Eagles ended Advance's season with a 1-0, eight-inning win in last year's district championship, and Bickings said he wouldn't be surprised if the two teams met again in this year's tournament, which begins on May 16.

"It's a rivalry. ... It's always good to come out with a win against this team," Bickings said. "They have a great ball club. Coach Asmus does a great job over there, so we expected a fight. We got one. It took us two big innings, and they shut us down for the most part after that. But we were able to capitalize when we needed to."

Oran 050 003 0 -- 8 9 3

Advance 100 000 0 -- 1 2 1

WP -- Thomas Trankler. LP -- Preston Wuebker. 2B -- Trankler (O), Jacob Priggel (O), Drew Reischman (O). Multiple hits -- Oran: Trankler 3-4.