Shae Simmons, Scott City

Offensively, Scott City leadoff hitter Shae Simmons had a week to remember at the Class 2 state tournament.

The junior set the table for the Rams offense, which racked up 23 runs and two 10-run victories en route to the state championship.

Simmons was 5-for-6 (an .833 average) with two walks. He had a double, a triple and scored five runs in the two games.

But Simmons also showed off his pitching ability in the state championship game, scattering five hits and three walks to allow three runs in a complete-game, six-inning effort as the contest was shortened by the mercy rule. Simmons used his sharp breaking ball to strike out 12.

"He's got a really nice curveball," Barstow's Corey Wacknov said. "It was pretty much devastating because he was throwing it on 2-0 and he was throwing it on 3-0. Every time you think you'll see a fastball, he'd throw in his curve. And it was going from your head to your knees."

Simmons' performance came as no surprise to his coach, Lance Amick. Particularly when Simmons pitched out of a jam in the third inning of the 13-3 win against Barstow with two runners in scoring position.

"That, in a nutshell, summed up him," Amick said. "His persona. His demeanor. I've said this many times before ˜ the kid's a warrior. He comes out second and third and nobody out and he just bears down and goes after those guys."

"We knew we could come out and win it," Simmons said of the school's first state championship in any team sport. "We had to keep them off balance. When you get to this level of competition, everybody can catch up to a fastball."