Prep baseball: Mohawks win regular-season finale

Jun. 29—MORAVIA — Bill Huisman had one question for his team as they left the field on Wednesday night.

"Who's ready for the postseason?!"

Moravia matched their overall record from last summer, wrapping up the regular season with a 13-3 five-inning win over Cardinal at Fenton Field. The Mohawks will carry a 21-7 record into district tournament play, which begins at home on Saturday night against Bluegrass Conference and Appanoose County rival Moulton-Udell.

Fireworks are set to go off after the Class 1A, District 9 first round doubleheader in Moravia, which begins with Twin Cedars and North Mahaska on Saturday at 5 p.m. The Mohawks are hoping to set off some fireworks on the field as the defending district champions look to make another deep postseason run this summer.

"We've been working awfully hard all summer for this," Huisman said. "We played so many Class 2A schools. We've been competitive all summer. I don't see that being any different when we get into this tournament. If these come out ready to go, we've got a good chance. We've got a shot."

Moravia came out ready to go on Wednesday, taking advantage of a fielding error in the first inning to spark a seven-run opening inning. Jackson McDanel scored the first of the seven runs on the error before the Mohawks scored four runs with two outs, including a two-run single by Caleb Cook and an RBI triple to right by Lincoln Albertson who scored on an RBI hit up the middle by Wyatt Throckmorton.

"I think Cardinal was in a little bit of bind. They've still got a couple games left before they open postseason play," Huisman said. "It's not a very good place to be facing us without one of your top-line pitchers available. We can score a lot of runs in a hurry if we get an opportunity."

Cardinal made a move in the top of the third inning, taking advantage of Moravia's own dropped fly ball to spark a three-run rally. Tatem Telfer's RBI double and a two-run single by Cayden Cormeny, his second of three hits in the contest, cut the Mohawk lead to 7-3.

The Comets (7-17) connected on four hits in the third inning off Moravia starting pitcher Wyatt Throckmorton, bringing the tying run to the on-deck circle. Throckmorton, however, responded retiring seven of the final eight batters in the contest.

"If you don't make the plays and give up extra outs, you're going to be in trouble," Huisman said. "We were able to get a nice lead early, but Cardinal swung the bats pretty well. Wyatt's not that easy to get hits off of. We may be a 1A school, but our group plays like a 2A team. We've got a lot of good arms and lot of good talent in the line-up."

Moravia opened a 9-3 lead in the fourth inning, taking advantage of three more hits including doubles by Throckmorton and Matthew Seals. Cardinal continued to struggle fielding balls in the fifth inning, allowing two more baseballs to drop as the Comets failed to field five fly balls that seemed destined for key outs throughout the contest.

"That might have been the first time I've had to go out to the outfield and start asking questions to the guys about where were things at and where was our focus," Cardinal head baseball coach Ryan Renfrew said. "It was hot today. The bus ride down here was a little adventurous. We just had a lack of go-power right out of the gate and I'm not entirely sure why. I'm going through in my head how to spice things up and keep things interesting.

"We had a lot of energy in wins over Albia and Clarke. We had a lot of energy and things were so much fun. We were playing some really good baseball. To come here in this game and have three errors in the very first inning seemed to change the tone negatively right out of the gate."

Moravia proved to be relentless, ending their regular-season finale early. Seals brought McDanel home with the final run, driving a pitch out to center that bounced over for a ground-rule RBI double, clinching the 10-run mercy rule triumph.

"I just knew I needed to hit the ball well," Seals said. "I was just waiting for the right pitch. It ended up working out and ended up winning the game."

Both Cardinal and Moravia will open postseason play on Saturday in Appanoose County. While the Comets head to Pat Daugherty Field to face Centerville in Class 2A, District 12 first round action, the Mohawks hope to kick off a state tournament run on Saturday with a festive atmosphere surrounding the community three days before Independence Day after coming within one win of a state tournament berth last summer.

"We've got almost everybody back from last year's team. If we keep our heads in it and realize the potential we've got, we can go a long ways," Seals said. "We've got to get bunts down, especially in close games. If you draw a walk, you've got to move that guy over. You need to bring those runs in anytime you get those opportunities.

"I think we've learned this year we can hang with those really tough teams. We're prepared for those really close games. We've struggled with that in the past, but we've been a lot better with those games this season. It'll be a fun night out here on Saturday if we can pull that win off and have a little bit of a show afterwards. It'll be a sight to remember."

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