Lee’s Summit North falls in Missouri Class 4 baseball final

SPRINGFIELD | All season long, Lee’s Summit North’s baseball team has scored runs seemingly at will.

The trend continued in the playoffs, when the Broncos — who averaged almost nine runs a game this season — scored 28 runs in quarterfinal and semifinal victories.

So you’ll have to forgive them if they weren’t worried when they trailed Fort Zumwalt South 3-0 early in the Missouri Class 4 state championship game on Saturday. But this time, the Broncos couldn’t make up the deficit and fell 8-4 at Meador Park.

“The rest of the year we’ve been doing that … coming back and never giving up,” said Broncos center fielder Kevin Morgan.

Lee’s Summit North did rally to tie the game, thanks to a run in the first and a two-run home run by Morgan in the second. But the combination of a few defensive lapses and the Bulldogs’ powerful lineup derailed their championship plans.

“Kevin got the big hit that got us back into it, and we felt good,” Lee’s Summit North coach Jeff Diekmann said. “But give them credit, they put pressure on us and we didn’t play our best today.”

The score remained tied at three until the top of the fourth inning, when Fort Zumwalt South took the lead on a throwing error. The Bulldogs added three more in the fifth — including one that came on a wild pitch — to take a four-run lead.

Lee’s Summit North got a run in the fifth on a fielder’s choice, but Fort Zumwalt South answered in the top of the next inning with another run. Bulldogs starter Hank Williams Jr. took it from there, retiring the Broncos with relative ease in the final two innings to clinch the title.

Afterward, Diekmann said the small things — Lee’s Summit North committed four errors and walked six batters — caught up to his team.

“You’ve got to hit the ball all over the yard if you’re going to play like that,” said Diekmann, whose team finished with a 26-6 record — the best in school history. “Today, we weren’t ourselves.”

Harrisonville 7, Fulton 5Harrisonville didn’t get the championship it hoped for entering the Class 3 tournament, but the Wildcats still managed to end their season in style.

After dropping their semifinal game against eventual state champion Cape Girardeau Notre Dame on Friday, the Wildcats bounced back with a thrilling come-from-behind victory over Fulton in the third-place game.

Harrisonville, which trailed Fulton 5-2 entering the top of the seventh inning, started the comeback with a leadoff single by senior Garrett Kliewer. After a groundout and a walk, junior Derek Haug and senior Delby Hannah followed with RBI singles to cut the deficit to one. The Wildcats went on to load the bases, and Haug tied the game by scoring on a wild pitch with two outs.

However, the inning appeared to be over when Fulton’s left fielder settled under a towering fly ball hit by junior James Fitzgearlds. But the left fielder misplayed the ball, and two runs came in to score as he retrieved the ball.

Harrisonville sophomore Kyle Livingston, who got the win, struck out the side in the seventh to cap off the comeback.

submitted by TEREZ A. PAYLOR - 2009-06-06 22:05:01

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