Vilisca loses to Stanton in rematch
VILLISCA - As the Villisca Blue Jays baseball team packed their bats and gloves, the dugout was quiet following their 14-1 loss to Stanton. The Jays’ playoff run had come to an end after winning 5 of the last 6 games.
These guys have a lot to be proud of,” Assistant Coach Steve Wood said, filling in Thursday night for Head Coach T.J. Quick, who was preparing for his wedding. “We finished the season well. Something we can build on.”
After starting the season with only one win in the first 12 games, the Blue Jays gained momentum with their wins over Corner Conference Champions Stanton, a double-header sweep of Clarinda Academy, and win over the Essex Trojans.
They met the Trojans again in the district quarter-final on Tuesday.
In the regular season, Villisca split their games with Essex losing the first 11-6 and winning the second 11-0.
Timmy Meyers was the winning pitcher in their second match-up with the Trojans and started again in the quarterfinal.
“We felt like we had the right guy on the hill,” Quick said after the 6-4 win over Essex. “Timmy’s been pitching really well and we felt confident in him again today.”
Meyers had a no-hitter going into the fourth inning, with a two-run lead when back-to-back Trojans reached on errors and a sacrifice fly by Kyle Bangston to put Essex on the board 2-1.
Villisca’s season seemed to be in jeopardy when Essex scored three more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning with RBI-hits by Ethan Fundermann and Kyle Bangston. Bangston later scored on an error to put Essex up 4-2 with one inning left.
“We have to score two runs, right now!” Quick encouraged his team between the sixth and seventh innings. “Your season is in these next three outs!”
Villisca left-fielder Nick Bergren responded leading off the seventh with a first pitch double.
Senior Eli Cordon reach on a misplayed fly to right field scoring Bergren while cutting the lead to 4-3.
Cordon would score on an error by the shortstop on a line drive crushed by Chris Schaaf tying the game up 4-4.
Essex shortstop, would make another costly error on a ground ball by Dustin Haffner that scored Schaaf giving the Blue Jays the lead 5-4.
Villisca added one more run to win 6-4 and advance on to the semi-final game against Stanton which they lost 14-1.
Next season, the Jays will be returning five starters, including their ace pitcher Timmy Meyers.
“We have some pretty big shoes to fill next year, losing four key seniors after this year,” Wood said. “We had a lot of young guys step up this year. Should be interesting to see what we do next year.”
The Blue Jays ended their season 6-16.