Menu
Kelly baseball continues historic run through the postseason
Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Kelly baserunner Gavin Jansen rounds third base en route to scoring against Sikeston earlier this season in Benton.
Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com
First-year Kelly High School baseball coach Jeremy Smith had a distinct strategy in preparing his team for the postseason this spring.
“We loaded up the schedule with these tough teams,” Smith told Semoball.com earlier this spring. “We added Sikeston. We added Notre Dame. We added some of these big schools on purpose. We knew that we wanted to be challenged coming into Districts and battle-tested.”
His plan has worked flawlessly.
The Hawks improved to 21-6 on the year, the most wins by the program in over a decade, by smoking Portageville 13-5 in the Class 3 Sectional 1 match-up on Tuesday at Portageville.
Kelly will now host Jefferson (Festus) (16-8) on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.
The Sectional victory was the Hawks’ first in over a decade.
Kelly jumped out to a 3-0 lead in its initial at-bat, as lead-off hitter Drew Dirnberger singled, Bryce Phelps was hit by a pitch and No. 3 hitter Gavin Jansen blasted a three-run homer to bring them each home.
Ty Powers then stretched the Hawk lead to 4-0 in the second inning after drawing a walk, moving to second on a stolen base, advancing to third base on a Bulldog error, and scoring on an RBI by Dalton Forck.
Portageville also has enjoyed a historic season, as it won 24 of 33 games, which was the most in over a decade. The Bulldogs didn’t have that degree of success by not competing, and in the third inning, the hosts stormed back by scoring five runs to seize the lead.
Kelly had an answer eventually, though, as it scored four runs in the fifth and five more in the sixth.
Phelps led off the fifth with a double, before scoring on an RBI double by Jansen.
Joel McClain brought himself and Jansen home with a two-run home run, which was followed by another double, this time by Reece Eftink, who later scored on a single by Powers.
In the sixth, Dirnberger led off the inning with a single and advanced to third on a single by Phelps, who advanced to second on the throw.
Jansen drew a walk to load the bases, while Bryce Morgan scored Dirnberger and Phelps with a single to center field.
McClain sacrificed Jansen home, which was followed by an RBI single by Eftink that scored Morgan.
Eftink eventually scored on a sacrifice by Jason Bain.
Dirnberger (two runs), Phelps (three runs), Jansen (three runs, four RBI, one walk), Morgan (one run, two RBI), Eftink (two runs, one RBI), and Powers (one run, one RBI, two walks) each had a couple of connections for Kelly.
McClain added one hit, three RBI, one run scored, and one walk, while Bain (one RBI, one walk), and Forck (one RBI) also contributed.
Morgan threw 6 2/3 innings to earn the win. He allowed 10 Bulldog hits, five earned runs, struck out eight, and walked one while giving up a couple of home runs.
“These guys come out and get tested and they respond,” Smith said. “They have been phenomenal, especially down the stretch against these good schools.
“We are not going to be pushed around.”
