Memorable Season Reaches Bitter End For Timberland Baseball

The baseball team accomplished quite a bit in 2011. The Wolves knocked off Rock Bridge, the state’s top-ranked team, en route to a district championship. The Wolves then beat Lebanon in Tuesday’s sectional to advance to Thursday evening’s Class 4 state quarterfinal against Ozark.

Unfortunately for the Wolves, they ran into a red-hot Tigers team that won its 17th straight game with an 8-1 victory to advance to next week’s state semifinals in Springfield.

“It wasn’t our day by any means,” Timberland coach Frank Masters said. “I don’t take anything away from Ozark—they’re a good ball club. It just wasn’t our day. When we hit the ball, they made every play.

“We went through a phase where every little ball found a spot and we made some mistakes, too. We had a good season, but we lost to a good team.”

Things started well for the Wolves (19-11) with Kyle Fletcher leading off with a bunt single on the game’s first pitch. To set a tone for the mistakes, Fletcher was later caught in a rundown between first and second. On a cold and blustery day, the game began briskly with nine batters through the first inning and a half.

Despite the game being played at Timberland, Ozark was the home team. Ozark’s Kyle Jochems led off the bottom of the second with a double and later scored on a double-play ball hit by Hayden Stancer to break the scoreless tie.

The Tigers (22-5) broke things open in the third. After Shane Cooper got James Oslica to fly out to right to begin the inning, Cooper hit the next two batters. Michael Headlee then ripped a two-run double and then scored on a Jochems single. Stancer later added an RBI single as part of a three-RBI day.

That was all Cody Holzer needed. The Ozark senior allowed just three hits and did not walk a batter over five innings before leaving after taking a line drive off of his foot. He still made the throw to first on the play and then struck out Brandon McGill to end the fifth.

“Cody threw well until he got hit on the foot and our defense was really good and we had timely hitting,” Ozark coach Mike Essick said. “We had some guys that stepped up and got some hits and that’s kind of been our trademark. We’ve been hot and we’re playing well right now.”

For a team that began the season 5-5, Essick acknowledged that his club “wasn’t supposed to be here” in the state semifinals. Still, Ozark will be playing Liberty (27-5) at Springfield’s Hammons Field next Friday.

“They’re just playing well,” said Essick, who will take his fourth team to the state seminals. “That’s all I can say.”

Oslica led off the fourth with a double and then scored on an Andy Westfall single. The Tigers also scored a run apiece in the fifth and sixth innings. Blake Martin began the fifth with a single to right and then scored on Stancer’s single. Oslica walked to lead off the sixth and then scored when Timberland left fielder Devin Johnson let Headlee’s blooper land in front of him.

The Wolves finally got on the board in the seventh with David Masters leading off with a base hit. Advancing to second on an error, Masters came around to score when Stancer tried to pick off Johnson at first, but the Ozark catcher instead threw the ball into right field. Coach Masters said it was a bit of a consolation to erase the shutout.

“It was nice to get a run across,” the coach said. “It was nice to score. It would have been (nice) to score about nine, but that didn’t happen. Runs were tough and we just didn’t get it done.”

The Wolves could have possibly scored more, but Johnson was thrown out trying to steal third. Johnson did not have the steal sign and the next pitch was a wild pitch to the backstop, prompting Masters to bark to the dugout from the third base box, “Now you can be here.”

“I still don’t understand the steal at third,” he said after the game, “but I said my peace … I don’t know where we were at (mentally). If you don’t make plays, you go home.”

Masters then reiterated his pride for his players despite getting their “butts beat in a quarterfinal game.”

“It would have been awesome to get to the final four with this group of kids,” he added, “especially with my son (shortstop David) being a senior.”

When Timberland’s grounded out to second to end the game, Westfall was tackled on the mound by teammates.

“He’s waited for that a long time,” Essick said of the lanky 6-foot-2 Westfall. “He’s started on varsity since his freshman year. I told him that’s for the four years of butt-chewings you’ve taken from me. Let’s take it home for everybody who didn’t think we’d be here. We’re as hot as anybody, so why can’t it be us?”