Tigers fall short in coach's finale

HILLSBORO, Mo. -- With the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the fourth inning the Central baseball team had an opportunity to stage a comeback in its Class 5 District 1 semifinal against top seed Seckman.

With his team down three runs, No. 9 hitter Kyle Thompson fouled a ball down the first-base line and patiently worked an 0-2 count to 2-2 before eventually flying out to left field.

"He had a great at-bat," Central coach Steve Williams said. "He missed a double probably by a foot. If that ball gets down, who knows it may trickle all the way down here and he comes to third. But once again, another day that might be fair. Today it was foul."

That's the kind of day it was for the Tigers, who lost 10-4 at Hillsboro on Saturday.

Central put at least one runner on in every inning and stranded 10 runners in the game.

"You never know," Williams said. "That's why every day is different. That's why baseball is such a great game. We had chances. That was the thing. Yeah, they got two in the first, but after that we had a couple chances with the bases loaded where if we get a base hit or something, now it's a totally different game. They cashed in on a couple chances and we didn't, and that was the difference."

Seckman scored two runs in the first on a home run by Thomas Estopare that was drilled over the left field fence and added two more in the fourth on a pair of infield groundouts.

"My approach was to keep the ball low and throw a lot of offspeed," Central starter Matt Chism said. "My curveball just wasn't working for me today, honestly.

"I couldn't get on top of it today, and it wasn't breaking at all. It was just spinning."

The Jaguars made Central's near miss in the top of the fourth far more painful in the bottom of the inning when they added five runs, three of which came on a home run by Collin Edwards.

"They've got two or three really good hitters, but the thing with them -- their whole lineup is solid to where there's no easy outs," Williams said. "In fact, some of the outs they made tonight were harder hits than some of the hits."

Central put its first two runners on in the fifth before an infield fly led to confusion for both an umpire and the players and eventually resulted in a double play. The Tigers added on one run in that inning and two more in the sixth but left the bases loaded again.

Central finished the season 11-20 in Williams' 22nd and final year as the Tigers' coach. While his team wasn't able to duplicate last year's state quarterfinal run as a team with a losing record, Williams saw a similar turnaround this season.

"Their effort was great," he said. "That's the thing that I was proud of was that when we were going through that [midseason] stretch they could have very easily just quit and packed it in and said, "Ah, coach,' and done whatever, but they didn't do that. To their credit, they fought back and became competitive and became a legitimate contender right there, and that's all you can ask for."

Even without being asked, Chism made the connection between Williams' leadership and midseason improvements.

"Your head's never down when you're with him," Chism said. "You always know there's always a chance. We had a 12-game losing streak, and we come back and we still make a run in district play. We're never down. He always has us up. Most teams after a 12-game losing streak -- they're down, they don't want to play anymore, the season's over. But not with him. He always gets you up and wants you to play."

Central 001 012 0 -- 4 10 1

Seckman 202 510 X -- 10 9 2

WP -- Matt Harvey. LP -- Matt Chism. HR -- Collin Edwards (S), Thomas Estopare (S). 2B -- Edwards (S). Multiple hits -- Central: Calvin Lovig 2-3, Josh Morse 2-4; Seckman: Edwards 3-3, Estopare 2-3, Andrew Kraus 2-2. Records -- Central 11-20.