Chase Queathem did something on May 13 that he hasn’t done since recreational baseball – hit one out of the park.

The Montgomery County junior did just that with two outs in the top of the seventh in a road game against the Wright City Wildcats. He smacked a two-run homer over the left field wall for his first home run of high school baseball career.

“It felt good,” Queathem said.

Queathem’s homer seemed to spark a comeback for the MCHS Wildcats, who came into the seventh trailing 8-4 after having a 4-1 lead. But MCHS came up short, losing 8-6 after freshman Marshall Bishop was called out on strikes with two runners on.

“We were cruising for a little bit,” Queathem said. “We had one bad inning and a few things happened. But that’s the game (of baseball).”

Still, Queathem is thrilled that he turned in a banner junior season for the Wildcats. Besides his first home run, he hit a career best .328 with 13 RBIs and earned his first all-Eastern Missouri Conference award.

“I’ve been having quite a bit of fun playing with my best friends,” Queathem said. “We’ve been playing together since first grade machine pitch. So it’s just fun growing up and playing with these guys. Even when we lose, we’re still having fun. Even when things aren’t going our way, we’re still having fun because I get to play this game with my friends.”

Queathem is also playing with an outstanding junior class. Four other juniors – Noah Beck, Colby Ellis, Mac Farrar and Edwin Garcia – were named to the all-EMO team.

Adrian Combs and Seth Walton also were big contributors.

“We have a big junior class,” Queathem said. “I think one of the biggest contributors to that is we’ve been playing baseball our whole lives. Eddie didn’t play with us. He played with us some, but growing up, we all played together.”

The juniors helped the Wildcats finished with their fourth straight winning season. MCHS wrapped up at 13-8 after losing 12-3 to South Callaway in a Class 3, District 7 semifinal game on May 19 in Mokane.

“Some of the games didn’t go our way, but we had a pretty successful season,” Queathem said. “It was not as successful as we wanted it to. We lost some games we should have won.”

Garcia was the Wildcats’ top hitter at .418, Farrar is 5-1 on the mound and drove in a team-high 16 runs, Beck has four wins and one of them was a one-hit, 9-0 complete-game victory over Elsberry, Ellis has 127 putouts with three errors as catcher, Combs has 11 hits including a bases-loaded triple against North Callaway and Walton had two wins on the mound before suffering a season-ending foot injury.

Queathem had a seven-game hitting streak earlier in the season. A three-hit performance against Van-Far on April 22 was part of that streak.

Against Wright City, Queathem was the second MCHS player to hit a home run this season.

The other was freshman Jackson Benney, who also earned a spot on the all-EMO team.

Queathem hit his homer off Wright City’s Kolby Bass to cut MCHS’ deficit to 8-6. He said when he was at the plate, his mission was just to not be the last out of the game.

“Being down in the last inning, I was trying to score runs and doing what I could,” the junior left fielder said. “I had a good pitch, swung at it and barrelled it up. That’s really all I did. I wasn’t really swinging for the fences or anything. I was trying to get base runners moving.”

Queathem, who also plays football and basketball, said he’s optimistic that his team will be strong again in 2026. The Wildcats will lose only senior Jacob Hogue to graduation and bring back 15 players, including Queathem.

“We have a lot to look forward to, especially next year,” Queathem said. “I know that we’re losing Jacob and that’s going to hurt us, but we have guys who will step up.”