Semoball

Mineral Area Orioles hand defending state champion Southeast Tropics first loss at Senior Babe Ruth State Tournament

Photo by Dustin Ward, staff
Southeast Tropics catcher Drew Glueck attempts to tag out Mineral Area's Tyler Hampton near home plate Thursday afternoon at the Senior Babe Ruth State Tournament at Hillhouse Park in Charleston, Missouri.

CHARLESTON, Mo. - The Southeast Tropics quest for a repeat state title hit its first road block Thursday afternoon at Hillhouse Park in Charleston.

Photo by Dustin Ward, staff
Mineral Area Orioles starting pitcher Cody Ziegelmeyer fires a pitch to the plate in a game against the Southeast Tropics Thursday at the Senior Babe Ruth State Tournament at Hillhouse Park in Charleston, Missouri.

Left-handed hurler Cody Ziegelmeyer put together a complete-game performance on the hill to help the Mineral Area Orioles edge the Southeast Tropics 3-1 in Game 5 of the Senior Babe Ruth State Tournament.

Photo by Dustin Ward, staff
Southeast Tropics outfielders Brennan Fowler (left) and Steven Simmons (22) eye a fly ball Thursday afternoon at the Senior Babe Ruth State Tournament at Hillhouse Park in Charleston, Missouri

“There is not a better pitcher in the area,” Mineral Area coach Greg Turner said of Ziegelmeyer, who has signed to play baseball at Shawnee Community College in Ullin, Illinois, next season. “When I give him the ball he never wants it out of his hands. I’m just so proud of the way he pitched today.”

Both teams scored all of their runs in the first three innings.

Mineral Area took the lead for good at 3-1 when it scored its final two runs of the playoff in the bottom of the third inning.

The trouble started for the Tropics in the frame when Mineral Area No. 8 hitter Drew Brakefield collected a one-out single. Brakefield scored the go-ahead run when the next hitter, Ziegelmeyer, hit a fly ball to right center that fell to the ground after the centerfielder and right fielder collided as they attempted to make a desperation catch. Ziegelmeyer made it all the way to third base on the play and later scored the final run of the game when the next hitter, Reilly Risinger, collected a sacrifice fly.

“Unfortunately they collided out there,” Turner said of the game-winning hit. “They made a heck of an effort to make a catch on that play. I feel for their guys on that play. But we did a good job of continuing to play after it happened and things worked out for us.”

The Tropics drove home its only run in the top of the third inning. Leadoff hitter Ty Johnson reached base on an infield error and Drew Dirnberger following by drawing a walk to put two runners on with nobody out in the frame. Tropics No. 3 hitter Brennan Fowler followed with an RBI single to tie things up at 1-1.

The Tropics had five other runners in scoring position the first five innings but never got the timely hit it needed to drive them home.

“We had some situations come up where we didn’t capitalize at the plate,” Tropics coach Dustin Schwartz said. “We had runners at third base twice with one out and didn’t score. When you do that against any team you are not going to win and that’s what happened tonight.”

The Orioles scored its first run in the bottom of the first inning when Risinger collected a leadoff single, stole second, advanced to third base on an error, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Blane Worley.

Ziegelmeyer retired nine of the final 10 hitters he faced for the complete-game victory. He allowed five hits, struck out seven, and walked two in a seven-inning 99-pitch outing.

“I preach one batter at a time,” Turner said. “And that’s the way he attacked their lineup today.”

Kaden Hargrove pitched the first 2 2/3 innings for the Tropics. He allowed three runs.

Chase Dembowski pitched the next 2 2/3 innings before Bryce Morgan got the final two outs for the Tropics pitching staff. Neither pitcher surrendered a run.

“We were fine defensively and pitching-wise today,” Schwartz said. “We just had that one mishap in the outfield. Other than that we made the plays we needed to make. We just struggled at the plate.”

The Tropics now need to win seven straight games in the double-elimination tournament to repeat as state champs. That quest begins Friday at 12:30 p.m. when the Tropics play their own 17-and-under squad in an elimination game.

“The silver lining is we’ve still got all of our pitchers available,” Schwartz said. “We have a deep staff. Moving forward our players need to realize every game could be their last of the summer. We’ve been struggling at the plate so we are going to get some work in tonight or tomorrow morning. Hopefully we can turn it on at the plate and start driving the baseball Friday.”

Mineral Area will have a day off before it takes on Festus 19U in a winner’s bracket semifinal Saturday at 10 a.m. Festus 19U beat Charleston 18U 11-0 in its game on Thursday.

“We will have to play better baseball,” Turner said. “We didn’t play a good baseball game at all today. We rode on Ziegelmeyer’s coat tail. We got a couple timely hits. But we have to clean up our defense and clean up some things on the base paths. We’ve just got to find a way to make the plays.”

Mineral Area Orioles 3, Southeast Tropics 1

Tropics 001 000 0 - 1 5 1

Orioles 102 000 0 - 3 7 1

WP - Cody Ziegelmeyer. LP - Kaden Hargrove. 3B - Ziegelmeyer (MA), Drew Brakefield (MA). 2B - Drew Worley (MA). Multiple hits - Tropics: Ty Johnson 2-4; Orioles : Worley 2-3, Brakefield 2-2.

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