ORAN, EMINENCE TO CLASH IN 1A QUARTERFINAL TODAY

A high-powered Eminence squad awaits Oran High's baseball team today as the Eagles hit the road in search of their first Class 1A Final Four appearance since 1982.

The Eagles and Red Wings will square off at 2:30 p.m. in a state quarterfinal contest. The winner moves on to next week's 1A Final Four in Columbia.

"We've been playing our best baseball of the season the past several games and if we keep that up then I think we've got a good chance," said Oran coach Mitch Wood. "When you get to this point, all the teams are going to be really good so it's just a matter of who plays the best. We'll go there and see what happens."

Oran is 21-320after squeezing past visiting Holcomb 4-2 in Thursday's sectional round. The Eagles are ranked fourth in the state.

Eminence, ranked second, is 22-3 following a much easier sectional victory as the Redwings routed Naylor 13-0 in five innings behind the no-hit pitching of Brandon Ramsey.

"We've had some games where we haven't been our sharpest, but overall it's been a real good season for us," said Eminence coach Pete McBride. "We went 14-4 last year and lost only one senior so we expected to be strong."

The Redwings, who have never before played in the state's final four, boast a team batting average of .400, led by three players who hit better than .500.

Eric Smith leads the way with a .530 average. He also has five home runs and 32 runs batted in.

Mark Frazier is next at .525 while Kevin Wood is at .520 with a team-leading nine homers.

Brian Miley has belted eight homers and is batting .430.

Pitching today for the Redwings will be Frazier, a hard-throwing righthander who has signed with Three Rivers Community College of Poplar Bluff. Frazier, 8-1 with a 1.30 earned-run average, has struck out 85 and walked 20 in 47 innings.

"He's got super off-speed stuff and good control of his fastball," said McBride.

As luck would have it, the Eagles will throw their ace pitcher for the second straight game.

Justin McAllister, who is 7-0 with an ERA of barely over 2.00, started Thursday's win over Holcomb.

But McAllister ran into control problems in the second inning and Wood sent Dustin Dannenmueller to the mound. Dannenmueller wound up allowing just one run over the final 5 2/3 innings to get the win.

"I've said all along that we have three real good pitchers and I have confidence in every one of them," said Wood in reference to McAllister, Dannenmueller and Dustin Glastetter. "I wouldn't hesitate to throw any one of them at any time."

McAllister had been Oran's most consistent pitcher throughout the season and, even though he ran into some early trouble Thursday, Wood has plenty of confidence in his senior righthander.

"That was one of the good things about Justin only throwing into the second inning (Thursday), now he can come back and pitching again (today)," Wood said.

While Oran might not have the overall offensive numbers of Eminence, The Eagles still pack plenty of punch at the plate.

Jeff Schaefer leads the Eagles offensively with a batting average of better than .420 while McAllister and Dannenmueller are also above .400.

Billy Loper and Jeremy Pobst follow with averages that near the .400 mark.

What Wood particularly likes about the Eagles' offense is that hitting comes from various parts of the lineup. For instance, during the sectional win, four of Oran's eight hits came from the bottom four players in the order.

"We've had strong hitting up and down the lineup and a lot of teams don't have that," Wood said.

Another thing that has Wood excited about his offense is that the Eagles seem to hit quality pitching as good if not better than mediocre pitching.

"We've seemed to have quite a bit of success against the better pitchers," he said. "I'm sure we'll be facing a good pitcher (today), but I feel like we've faced some good pitchers in our area this year."

Chaminade at Sikeston

SIKESTON -- Sikeston will shoot for a berth in the Class 4A Final Four when Chaminade from St. Louis visits VFW Stadium for today's 2 p.m. quarterfinal contest.

The Bulldogs are 18-3 while the Flyers are 20-4-1.

Sikeston rolled past host De Soto 9-2 in Thursday's sectional round. Mitchell Sharp belted two home runs while Brent Self pitched a two-hitter.

No. 2 pitcher Clay Hooper will start on the mound for the Bulldogs today.

"From what I understand Chaminade has an excellent team so it should be a good game," said Sikeston coach Kevin Self.