Willard baseball takes third at state playoff

Impressive Tiger baseballers make third straight Final Four appearance
 
Willard has been the standard of success on the diamond since head coach Scott McGee took over the program. This year makes the third straight season that the Tigers have reached the Final Four. They finished third in 2019 and were the favorites going into the 2020 season that never was due to COVID. The Tigers bounced back to win their first championship last year, so this year was about going back to back. After defeating Glendale, 6-0, in the district championship and Helias Catholic out of Jefferson City, 2-1, the Tigers fell just short of their ultimate goal and took third place.

Versus Festus
Willard took on Festus, from up north, in the semifinal Friday night. Willard struck first as senior Kade Biellier and junior Cooper Hampton were both driven in by junior Owen Bushnell with a two-RBI single that just escaped the glove of the Festus second baseman. Festus answered with two runs of their own behind three hits, a sac fly and a dropped third strike. Junior catcher Kyden McMain put Willard back on top in the top of the third inning with an RBI-single scoring junior Klayton Kiser, to take a 3-2 lead. Festus responded right back with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the third inning tying the game at 3-3.
Pitching would take over from there as Mason Schirmer, of Festus, and Biellier found their groove on the mound. Both teams threatened, but neither team was able to score the go-ahead run until the bottom of the eighth inning when Festus drew four walks to plate the go-ahead run.
Coach Scott McGee thought that the final baserunner ran out of the baseline en route to celebrate with his teammates and made a plea to the home plate umpire for what would have been the third out of the inning but the plea was denied and Festus defeated the Tigers, 4-3, in eight innings.

“We all understand what happened at the end of the game, but regardless we just didn’t score enough to win,” said McGee following the game. “In eight innings, you have to score more than three to beat a team like Festus. We have to do a better job offensively but you can’t take anything away from them. They played really well and it was just an unfortunate way to end things. I wish the players could have decided the game, but that’s not how the game went.”

Versus Ft. Zumwalt
The loss set up a third-place matchup against another really good team, Ft. Zumwalt East out of Kansas City on Friday.
Jared Miles toed the rubber for the Tigers in the contest against the Lions. Miles was on top of his game as the first Zumwalt threat came due to an error in the third inning. A single brought the first run across for the Lions, and Zumwalt led 1-0 going into the bottom of the third. Willard’s Cooper Wilkin led off the third inning reaching on an error. Wilkin would later score thanks to a sac fly by Chance Hampton. Singles by Owen Bushnell and Kyden McMain accounted for three runs, giving Willard a 4-1 lead. The Tigers defended the 4-1 lead until the top of the fifth when a walk, hit and error resulted in a pair of runs for Zumwalt and the lead was cut to 4-3. The offense that had disappeared in the semifinal game showed up in the bottom of the fifth inning for Willard as Kyle Beeman drove in two runs with a single to left field. Wilkin would finish the job driving in Beeman to one-up Zumwalt’s two-run inning with a third for Willard and the Tigers took a 7-3 lead. All three Willard seniors contributed to the win, as Biellier drew two walks while Miles and Gunner Wildermuth threw 6.1 combined innings without allowing an earned run, and striking out nine.
“I don’t think any of our kids or coaches slept last night. Just mustering up the energy to play today wasn’t easy, but that is what marks great people. Our kids are competitors and they came out and played well and won,” McGee said following the game.

“This will motivate us a lot going into next year,” Beeman said. “Even though we got third, its going to drive us through this summer. It was nice getting here but we really wanted to win. We really thought we were going to win. We didn’t, so now we have to make it back here next year.”

This marks the end of the Tiger road for Kade Biellier, Jared Miles and Gunner Wildermuth, who amassed an 89-25 record over their three seasons with three trips to the Final Four and a state championship.
“Our three seniors have been instrumental for us,” McGee said. “They made three Final Fours in their three seasons, with a fourth COVID year where they were nationally ranked and they have meant a ton for the program.”
Willard brings back possibly the most the program has in recent years, as 10 key contributors will return for the revenge tour that starts this summer.