Babe Ruth baseball: MWP tournament

Jul. 26—OTTUMWA — It truly was Game 7 on Monday for the Southeast Tropics and the McDonald's Fighting Squirrels.

"We beat them the first time during the regular season. They swept us in a doubleheader. They beat us in the semifinals at state, then we beat them back-to-back to win the state title," Tropics oach Dustin Schwartz said.

Even if the Southeast Missouri neighbors hadn't split six previous meetings this season, Monday's Midwest Plains regional championship contest would have likely been just as intense. The Tropics won the seventh and decisive game in the head-to-head series in a showdown several days in the making, clinching a return trip to the 16-18 year-old Babe Ruth World Series with a 7-5 win on Monday to clinch the regional title at Boyd Brittain Field.

"This was a year in the process for this team. We're going to make it there and we're going to make it winning the state and regional championships," Schwartz said. "We made it last year as a national wild card selection. It's not really the same as winning this and going there as the Midwest Regional champions.

"We're going out there to win that one to. I can promise you that."

The four-day regional tournament seemed to be something of a prelude to the expected showdown between the Tropics and Fighting Squirrels, two excellent Babe Ruth baseball programs that are located less than a hour's drive from each other in the communities of Chaffee and Charleston. The two programs each traveled over six hours to make it to southeast Iowa to open play on Friday, setting the tone by winning by combined scores of 28-3 in the opening two games of the tournament.

The showdown was finally set after each team rolled through round-robin play, each winning four games in three days by a combined score of 119-9. In the semifinals, the Southeast Tropics sent Kansas state champion Finney County home with a 10-2 win while the Fighting Squirrels won 7-3 over Colorado state champion Border County, setting up the much-anticipated regional championship showdown.

"The Squirrels always have a great team. I've been with the Tropics for three years and it's always been a battle us," Tropics second baseman Drew Dirnberger said. "The Squirrels always have great fight in them. It leads to great games all the way around."

That ability to push each other led to remarkable defensive plays early with Steven Henley robbing the Squirrels twice of base hits by running down fly balls in center for the Tropics while Dylan Thornbrough showed off his range at short making a running and leaping throw to rob Brandon Parker of a lead-off hit in the second inning.

Both Thornbrough and Parker would let their bats do the talking later in the championship game. Thornbrough struck first with a lead-off home run in the fourth, giving the Fighting Squirrels a 1-0 lead before the Tropics responded without a hit, putting three runners on base on two walks and a hit batter with two runs scoring on wild pitches before a two-out RBI single by Joel McClain gave the Tropics a 3-1 lead.

"It seems like, once we get one thing going, the rest of the team starts flowing," Dinberger said. "We play hard and play the game right. So far, it's been working out for us."

The emotions of the championship game heated to a boiling point in the fifth after the Squirrels had pulled within 3-2 on a two-out RBI single in the top of the inning by Charlie Parker. Parker, playing first base, opened the bottom of the fifth inning by having to reach for a wide throw from second by teammate Jace Aycock that appeared to pull Parker off the base which would have allowed Hayden Nazarenus to reach safely.

Nazarenus, however, was ruled out. Schwartz was ejected after vocally arguing the call and would miss the rest of the championship game.

"Coach Schwartz really did get his money's worth up there," Dinberger said. "It really fired the team up. We were kind of stagnant at the beginning of the game. After that, I was ready to go. So was the rest of the team."

Less than a minute after watching his coach be ejected from the regional championship game, Dinberger ignited what would prove to be a winning rally for the Tropics by hammering the second pitch after the ejection over the fence for a solo home run. Six pitches later, Brandon Palmer added a two-run home run to left as the Tropics put four runs on the board to open a 7-2 lead in the title game.

"You know you're coach has your back and he's there for you," Dinberger said of the ejection. "It lit a fire in everyone. It definitely got our juices flowing."

The Tropics would need every bit of the rally to secure a World Series trip. The Squirrels responded by scoring twice in the sixth and strung together three straight hits with two outs in the seventh, putting the tying run at second base with two outs.

Needing one more hit to complete the comeback, Grant James swung and missed at a fastball thrown by Tropics relief pitcher Bladon Perry. The Tropics earned a regional title, the season series win over their Southeast Missouri rivals and a trip over 2,000 miles to the great northwest to play in the 16-18 year-old Babe Ruth World Series held Aug. 4-14 in Epharta, Washington.

"Doing the little things right. That's what our coaches preach to us every day. That's what it's going to take to win at the World Series," Dinberger said. "Play the game hard and play the game the right way. When you do that, the scoreboard reflects it at the end."

While Southeast Missouri dominated in the Midwest Plains regional tournament, Southeast Iowa struggled. Both Ottumwa and Albia went 0-4 in the tournament with Ottumwa managing just one run in four games while Albia failed to get key hits to complete potential game-changing rallies in a 13-3 loss on Friday to the Fighting Squirrels and a 9-0 loss to Iowa state champion Davenport.

"That timely hitting just didn't come for us. We had some opportunities that we couldn't capitalize on," Albia coach Kevin Keegal said. "We knew coming into this we were the underdogs. For us, we had players from our junior varsity high school team going up against kids that are playing college baseball. I'm just really proud of the kids. They never quit and their attitudes were good. Nobody ever gave up."

"The most important part of this was to come out, enjoy playing baseball together and have some fun," Ottumwa coach Terry Shoop added.

— Scott Jackson can be reached at sjackson@ottumwacourier.com. Follow him on Twitter@CourierScott.