Thomas delivers for Oak Ridge in title game

CALEDONIA, Mo. -- If Oak Ridge baseball coach Jason Niswonger could have scripted his team's performance in the Class 1 District 3 tournament, there would be little deviation from how it played out.

The Blue Jays claimed a second consecutive district title with an 8-1 victory over Lesterville on Wednesday.

"Things worked out well," Niswonger said. "I'll just say that."

Oak Ridge, the second seed, was able to send ace Brett Thomas to the mound against the fifth-seeded Bearcats. Thomas did not give up an earned run in his complete-game gem.

"Huge," was the word Niswonger chose to describe the luxury of saving Thomas after Dakota Zoellner and Garret Light got wins earlier in the tournament. "And we got help. Last year, Bismarck, the one seed, got knocked out early, and this year they got knocked out early. And both times they saved their ace for the championship and didn't get there, so we had some help. It's not all us, but yeah that was nice."

After retiring the top of the Lesterville lineup in order to start the game, Thomas came to bat in the bottom of the first with runners on first and second.

"He doesn't get pitched to a lot," Niswonger said, "and I know that they've done their homework, so I was kind of surprised they pitched to him at all."

Thomas quickly drilled a line drive home run over the left-field fence to give his team an early cushion.

"As soon as I saw Brett's hit go over the fence, I was like 'Whoosh,'" said third baseman Logan Mangels, letting out a deep exhale. "A big weight just lifted."

Thomas finished the day 2 for 2 with five RBIs.

"I've been hitting so terrible the last I don't know how long," he said. "It's been ugly. I finally started to hit a little bit last game, so I was a little surprised that they were throwing at me. I got a pitch I could drive and put a good, solid swing on it."

The Blue Jays put the game out of reach with five runs in the fourth inning. The final two came on a pinch-hit single by junior Hunter Mitje.

"Usually when he puts me in to hit he trusts me a lot and has a lot of confidence in me," Mitje said of Niswonger. "I was just hoping to get a big hit. He wanted a hit through the gap between first and second and he said I was good at hitting ground balls to that place, so he put me in."

Lesterville placed a runner on second or third in four of the seven innings, but scored just once -- when the Oak Ridge catcher overthrew second base on a steal attempt to allow a runner to score from third.

"They were a tremendous [offensive] team," Thomas said. "It wasn't really their hitting, but it was their plate discipline. You'd make a really good pitch and they would take it and it would be a ball. You just had to make good pitch after good pitch to try to get them out."

Thomas allowed six hits and walked two.

"They hit a couple tough pitches on a line," he said. "Pitches that I thought were good, but they just found the holes and just had to work my way out of it. My defense helped quite a bit today. They played well."

Oak Ridge will face the District 4 champion Monday.

"I was nervous before today's game, so can't really say I'm not going to be nervous again before sectionals," Thomas said.

The Blue Jays advanced to the quarterfinal round a year ago, making a district title nice but not their goal.

"It was a good step one," Thomas said. "It tastes good, but we want the whole thing right now."

Lesterville 000 100 0 -- 1 6 2

Oak Ridge 300 500 x -- 8 10 2

WP -- Brett Thomas. LP -- B. Kelley. 2B -- Logan Freeman (L). HR -- Thomas (OR). Multiple hits -- Oak Ridge: Logan Mangels 2-4, Thomas 2-2, Jacob Light 2-4; Lesterville: Kelley 2-4. Records -- Oak Ridge 12-12.