Semoball

Cooter baseball team shuts out Holcomb 10-0 in Tri-County Conference championship

Photo by Dustin Ward, staff
Pictured is the Cooter baseball team with its first-place plaque after beating Holcomb 10-0 in the Tri-County Conference championship.

COOTER, Mo. - Traditional baseball juggernaut Cooter added another plaque to its trophy case Wednesday afternoon.

The top-seeded Cooter Wildcats scored in four of the five innings it batted as it beat No. 2 seeded Holcomb 10-0 in the Tri-County Conference baseball championship.

Cooter right-hander Dawson Treat, who also no-hit Van Buren Sept. 17, did not allow a hit in five innings of work against Holcomb.

“He’s 9-0 with an ERA under 0.20,” Cooter baseball coach David Mathis said. “He’s just been flat dominant for us.”

Cooter calculated four runs in the first inning, three runs in the third inning, two runs in the fourth inning and another run in the bottom of the fifth inning for its 10-run total.

Lane McLevain and Zach Pendergrass each recorded a 2 RBI single in the first inning. Chris Crowder had a sacrifice fly in the fourth frame. Christian Gunnels, which finished 2 for 3, added the game-ending RBI single in the fifth frame.

“This is the best average we’ve had with a group of kids,” Mathis said. “We are batting around .400 as a team. We’ve also hit more home runs this year, which is because we’ve got in the weight room and worked. These kids work. They are not overly talented but they just get after it.”

Holcomb had five hitters reach base despite no hits.

The Hornets loaded the bases in the top of the fourth inning after Austin Wallace drew a leadoff walk, Eli Morgan followed by reaching base on an error and Logan Acup was hit by pitch with one out. Treat escaped the jam by striking out Eli Bader for the second out and getting Austin Barnes to fly out to right field.

“I think coach Casper does a great job,” Mathis said. “He’s got a young bunch of kids and he’s getting them to compete. They beat a pretty good group from Gideon yesterday. He’s got a bunch of freshmen, and I know how that is, because I had that last year. I just love playing against his teams because they always compete.”

Cooter’s path to the championship of the five-team tournament included a 15-0 semifinal victory against No. 4 seeded Delta C-7 Tuesday.

Holcomb beat No. 3 seeded Gideon with Risco 7-3 in its semifinal Tuesday.

“I was very pleased our kids were able to get a win against Gideon on Tuesday,” Holcomb baseball coach Matt Casper said. “We knew this game wouldn’t be easy because Cooter has a really good team this year. We knew we would need to do a lot of good things and they would have to make some mistakes for us to come out with a win. But it was a great accomplishment for our kids to get here and have an opportunity to play for a championship.”

Holcomb finishes its fall campaign with a record of 6-9.

“I really think we had a pretty good season starting five freshmen,” Casper said. “I had one kid that played the same position he played last year and he broke his finger the first week and didn’t get to play the rest of the season. Everyone on our team played a different position this year or was an incoming freshman.

“We had to grow up really fast on the field,” Casper added. “We had six games the first week and our pitching was not the strongest, but we still managed to go 3-3. We took our hits when we had to take them against good teams, but I’m proud of our progression. I think this young group will continue to grow in the spring and feed off the experiences they had in the fall.”

Cooter, which also won the Tri-County Conference regular season title, finishes its fall season with a record of 18-1. Its only loss was a 6-1 decision to Tamms, Illinois.

“We went out west and played a good group at Neelyville and Plato,” Mathis said. “We were rained out against Oran. I wanted to play Oran and Bernie but we never could get anything setup. I think those guys are upperclass and those coaches do a great job. I wish we would have got a shot to play them. We finished 18-1 and got beat over in Illinois on a day I felt like we didn’t compete. I got after them really good after that loss and since then they’ve went all-out for us and I’m very proud of them.”

Cooter 10, Holcomb 0

HHS 000 00 - 0 0 3

CHS 403 21 - 10 5 1

WP - Dawson Treat. LP Jimmie Davis. Multiple hits - Cooter: Christian Gunnels 2-3.

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Photo by Dustin Ward, staff
Pictured is the Holcomb baseball team with its second-place at the Tri-County Conference Tournament Wednesday in Cooter.
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