Despite having its season end in heartbreaking fashion in district play, the Montgomery County baseball team had reason to celebrate this spring.
With a 10-8 record, the Wildcats finished with …
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Despite having its season end in heartbreaking fashion in district play, the Montgomery County baseball team had reason to celebrate this spring.
With a 10-8 record, the Wildcats finished with their first winning season since 2019 and their fourth in the last five years. They won eight of their games in Eastern Missouri Conference play.
“The end of the season didn’t quite go as well as we hoped,” MCHS senior Evan Abercrombie said. “But as far as the regular season goals we set for ourselves, we pretty much completed all of them except the conference championship.”
The biggest highlight for the Wildcats in the 2022 season was defeating Elsberry twice. MCHS knocked off the Indians 8-2 on March 19 and 2-1 on May 4. Last year, Elsberry defeated the Wildcats in the district finals.
“We had a target on their backs from day one,” Abercrombie said. “It felt really good to beat them because they ended our season last year. I think they always thought they should beat us, but it ended up falling our way.”
South Callaway denied the Wildcats another trip to the district finals on May 16, defeating MCHS 6-5 in a Class 3, District 7 semifinal game at Mokane.
The Wildcats were one strike away from a trip to the district championship game against top-seeded Father Tolton before South Callaway scored two runs in the top of the ninth to pick up the come-from-behind win. Abercrombie suffered the loss on the mound a month after picking up a 4-0, complete-game win over South Callaway in a regular season game.
“We were one strike away a couple of times, then we couldn’t get that last out,” Abercrombie said. “I really took that one pretty hard. My team relies on me to be the guy they turn to in those situations and I couldn’t pull it out for them.”
The Wildcats also had wins over Silex, South Callaway, Clopton, Van-Far, Wellsville-Middletown, Mark Twain, Louisiana and North Callaway. They matched last year’s win total of 10.
MCHS played just four home games and won all of them. Abercrombie tossed a no-hitter in the Wildcats’ 6-0 win over Silex in the home opener on March 28. They swept a senior night doubleheader over Louisiana and North Callaway on May 10 and picked up a win over Clopton on April 22.
The Wildcats had six of their games canceled this year due to weather. Their game against Elsberry on May 4 was moved to Silex High School because the fields at Elsberry and MCHS were not playable.
“Rainouts messed with us this year, for sure,” Abercrombie said.
MCHS had four players named to the Class 3 all-state team. They were Abercrombie (honorable mention pitcher), senior Ethan Rakers (first team catcher), junior Travis Hill (honorable mention infielder) and sophomore Jace Ellis (second-team outfielder).
Abercrombie, Rakers, Hill and Ellis also earned all-conference and all-district honors. Junior Harrison Bishop joined the four players on the all-district team.
Besides Abercrombie and Rakers, the Wildcats will also lose Lucas Pierson to graduation.
Other members on the team were junior Gunner Sexton, sophomores Christian Naylor, Bryson Hoffman, Mason Leu, Brayden Rose and Dayton Simmons and freshmen Jacob Hogue, Tatum Wessel, Lane Kluesner, Burke King, Brayden Harris, Devers Cope, Landen Pottebaum, Zach Welker, Jonah Happe and Bryson Nichols.
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