For the second year in a row, the Wellsville-Middletown baseball team had its season end with another heartbreaking, extra-inning loss.

The Tigers fell 3-2 to the Glasgow Yellowjackets in 10 innings in a Class 1, District 12 quarterfinal game at Glasgow High School on May 12, denying them a chance to win their second straight district championship.

Last spring, W-M lost 9-8 to Leeton in nine innings in a Class 1 state quarterfinal game at Leeton, coming up one win short of a trip to the Final Four.

Against Glasgow, the Tigers struggled offensively, getting only three hits. They got their only runs on stolen bases by senior Keaton Mayes and junior Dylan Alsop.

“Glasgow had real decent hitting and we had no one hit,” said Justin Caldwell, who wrapped up his first year as W-M head coach. “It was very frustrating as a coach because the one thing that we have been really good at in the years past is hitting. This year, the bats kind of went quiet and cold.”

The Tigers didn’t celebrate another winning season this spring as they finished 2-12. A year ago, they were 11-10.
“It was very humbling as a coach,” said Caldwell, who replaced Brandon Moeller as head coach. “It was very humbling for our players because they had so much success in their high school careers, whether it would be basketball, baseball, track or cross country. Everyone had success up until this point. Hopefully, we can correctly regroup and come out on the other side mentally stronger.”

W-M lost seven of its games by one run. The Tigers started their season on March 21 with a 4-3 loss to Community R-6. At one point of the season, they lost 19-18 to Van-Far.

Caldwell said the team was affected by rainouts for most of the year. Six of the Tigers’ games were canceled, two of them were in Eastern Missouri Conference play.

“The weather got the better of us this year,” Caldwell said. “It caused a lot of games to be crowded up with each other.”

After losing their first five games, the Tigers beat Clopton 3-1 on April 11 at home for their first win of the season. In that contest, junior Mason Guzy pitched a complete game, striking out four and giving up three hits.

W-M defeated Silex 2-1 on May 2 at home for its other victory.

With the win over the Tigers in districts, Glasgow avenged the 10-0 loss in last year’s Class 1 sectional game at Battle High School in Columbia. Guzy and Alsop combined for 20 strikeouts on the mound in the losing cause.

“If you play 10 innings and have your pitchers get 20 strikeouts with only two walks and only three hits, you’re going to think that you have won the game,” Caldwell said. “But five errors really does a team in, especially in Class 1 baseball. The game is won or lost on fundamentals of fielding, throwing and catching. Unfortunately, we didn’t field, throw or catch efficiently enough to help Dylan Alsop and Mason Guzy, who left their heart and soul on that field and who are going to come back in their senior year hungry and get us back to where they know we should be.”

Alsop was the Tigers’ only representative on the all-EMO team, earning first-team utility honors.

“He really matured,” Caldwell said. “I asked certain and specific things out of him that he didn’t give the past couple of years. He truly became a leader in the program and met every expectation that I expected him to meet.”

Mayes and Lucas Peak were the Tigers’ only seniors.

Juniors CJ Curd, Logan Pursifull, Keaton Marshall, Kaleb Peak, Alex Cash and Lucas Moore, sophomores A.J. Sherwood and Tristan Hill and freshmen Hunter Bickell, Gage Marshall, Aaron Peterson and Brennan “Tim” Cash rounded out the team.