Spring sports come to a roaring finale amidst all the rushing about of end of the year ceremonies, activities, assemblies and of course-graduation! In addition, each team seems to have a different “take” on the concept of one more loss and it’s over!  Each game of importance often seems to have a “unique” character to it from some perspective.  For example,

Luck or no –13 good or bad? The Oakville Tigers won BOTH district games by the same identical score (that’s odd enough). The 13-12 scores indicate the wildness and topsy-turvy emotional roller coasting rides of each game. In the semis, St Marys led 6-4 after 4 innings, 8-6 after 5 innings. Oakville plated 5 runs in the 6^th to take a 11-9 lead. The Dragons respond with 3 runs to take a 12-11 going into the final half inning. Tigers obviously rally for two runs to win ! Oakville pounds out 19 hits as Tyler Mischel bangs out a bases empty round tripper and Drew Stanton had 4 ribbies for the day. Two days later the Tigers carried 8-4 lead into the final inning. The Vianney Golden Griffins hung up 6 runs in the top half of the 7^th. Oakville managed to put up two runs of their own and push the game into extra innings. Vianney crossed the plate twice in top of 8^th only to see the Tigers rally for 3 runs and snatch the District Title ! Again, Oakville knocked the ball all around the park for 19 hits!  What a rut, heh ?  13 runs, 19 hits….gee, I’d like those odds every game if I were on the bench. What were the odds in all those 6^th and 7 ^th inning rallies of it actually working out ?

Jackson High School sends a soph pitcher with only 17 innings of Varsity pitching experience into the district championship against the Hillsboro Hawks.  Not only is the job adequate but it is scintillating.  Scoggins dominates the Hawks with a nasty curveball and carries the Indians to a district Championship 13-5. Jackson (12-11) will now do battle with the #1 ranked team of the Coaches Poll—Francis Howell Vikings (21-3)

Howell beat a very solid Howell North (15-9) for the third time this season 8-0. Austin Buenemann twirled a 5 hitter while going “yard” himself in this surprisingly easy Viking win at C&H Park.

Third time was not quite such a charm for Ft Zumwalt West. The Jaguars (21-5) had knocked off the Holt Indians twice during the regular season. However, lucky charms or not, the Indians (20-7) gained some revenge by romping past the Jaguars 11-1 in 5 innings. Jim Foster hurled a 2-hitter as Holt held back their other ace, Tim Mehlville, for the Hickman Kewpies this Tuesday in Sectionals. Holt enters the STATE baseball tourney for the 2^nd consecutive year.

More last minute heroics for the Wildcats of Hazelwood West. West trailed the McCluer North Stars 7-2 when Trevor Manis opened the 7^th with a single. Manis would end the game 9 batters later by driving home the winning run with 2 outs to give the Wildcats a thrilling 8-7 win over fellow Suburban North foe, the North Stars. West will face the Parkway Central Colts in sectional play. Central extended its winning streak to 8 games by defeating CBC and DeSmet in district play.

That’s why you play the game……The Union Wildcats just couldn’t quite stretch out their sizzling pitching for 3 games. Winning 3-1 in the first round over Salem then upsetting #1 seeded Sullivan 2-1 in the semis with great pitching that was startling to most observers. However, the Wildcats ran out of arms and fell to the Pacific Indians (10-12) 7-0 in the title tilt. Interesting enough, Union finished 7^th and Pacific finished 6^th in the Four Rivers Conference. The #2, #3, #4 teams of the conference were all in this same district but were on the sidelines for the Championship game of this district. This is one example that the seeding DID play a major role…just NOT in the way that anyone expected.

In an indoor sport, www.prepcasts.com enjoyed the opportunity to cover all the semifinal and championship volleyball matches this past week. While still a bit short of the required number of schools to be fully sanctioned and recognized as a MSHSAA STATE champion, these games were loaded with fan excitement, great athletes, tremendous competition in every match. The Class 4 Championship was a classic. Lafayette and SLUH faced each other again to determine the championship. In 2007, the Jr. Bills surprised many observers with their win over the very tall and very talented Lancers. 2008 saw a rematch of the same two excellent teams.  Lafayette, with the large crowd going nuts, went to a 36-34 win in game one. Remember, 25 is the winning total but you must win by 2 points. Carl Dick of the Lancers finally drove home two consecutive kills to notch game 1.  SLUH rebounded and won game 2, 25-16. In front of a frenzied crowd, SLUH jumped ahead and won 25-20 for their 2^nd straight title. All the wonderful outside hitters had huge nights—for Lafayette it was Carl Dick and Cody Kappel. For the Jr Bills it was Pete Hock and Mike Adams. The superlative setters for each team excelled as some of the best in the country—Tony Meier (Lafayette) & John Swanston(SLUH) will both continue their careers, if they choose, beyond high school for their high level of volleyball. Class 3 saw St. Marys Dragons defeat Chaminade in two games. The Dragons, as in 07, used an impenetrable defense to rack up the title.  All these replays are available 24-7—check them out!