Rams pass on home run trots at final four

SPRINGFIELD — Sure, the Scott City Rams put up 23 runs on 26 hits in two state tournament games. But they never put one over the fence.

"I think we need to do a little more weightlifting," joked Scott City senior Ryan Modglin, the team's No. 3 hitter.

"But we were swinging the bats well and a double is better than an out."

Scott City decked Barstow with doubles in the state championship game.

The Rams blasted six doubles, tying the record of four other teams that have done that in the state's final four.

Catcher and cleanup hitter Cody Carlyle had two doubles. Modglin, pitcher Shae Simmons, Josh Henson and Clayton Hall each had one. All but one — a leadoff double by Carlyle in the fourth — drove in runs; and Hall's and Modglin's each drove in two.

"I was pretty happy with the way we were swinging the bats," said Carlyle, one of the team's two seniors, along with Modglin.

Shae Simmons delivered a pitch to a Barstow batter Thursday. Simmons pitched all six innings in the Rams' 13-3 victory.

Hall, who drove in Scott City's first run in the 10-0 semifinal win against Hallsville, set the tone again Thursday in the 13-3 win against Barstow with a two-run two-out double into right in the first inning.

"Clayton Hall had a huge hit again," Scott City coach Lance Amick said. "In both of these games, he broke the ice."

Scott City made a habit of big two-out hits in building a 6-2 lead through four innings.

Simmons and Henson had back-to-back doubles in the third. The double by Simmons, a blast to left-center field, drove in Skylar Cobb, who had reached second base on a fielder's choice as Cody Page salvaged a baserunning error by extending a rundown that allowed Cobb to reach second.

Barstow's T.J. Jarvis safely returned to first as Ryan Modglin received the pickoff throw during Thursday's game.

With two outs in the fourth, Modglin blasted a double over the center fielder's head to drive in Cobb and Henson.

And Carlyle had an RBI in the seven-run sixth inning.

"We felt like the pitchers we saw, we could get good swings against," Amick said, "and the kids executed."

Scott City might have set the record on Cody Page's high fly ball beyond the left fielder that was deep enough to be a double but close enough to being caught that the runners on first and second could only advance one base. That was about the closest threat Scott City had to putting one over the fence.

In the eight state tournament games for classes 1 and 2, only one homer was hit at Meador Park, which measures 340 feet down the lines and 376 to center.

"This is a pretty deep park," Modglin said, "but we've been in deeper and hit them out there."

For the two games, Scott City hit .473 (26-for-55), which is second all-time in the state tourney to Platte County's .500 mark (24-for-48) in 2002 in Class 3.

The Rams became the second team to win two 10-run games in state play, joining the 1990 Fulton team that won in Class 3.

"We thought it would be a good, close game," Carlyle said of the final, "but we'll take it."

Especially after Scott City needed two eight-inning victories against Portageville (10-6) and Clearwater (7-5).

"Those were nerve-racking games," Amick said.

"All these teams from district on are going to be good," Modglin said. "We're expecting close games all the time, but whether you win by 10 or you win by one, a win is a win. We'll take it either way."