By Scott Vanscoy (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Forsyth, MO— Forsyth defended its No. 1 seed by beating the No. 2 seed Hartville Eagles, 1-0, on Tuesday night to capture the Class 3, District 10 championship. Hartville was ranked No. 2 in Class 3 in the last state baseball rankings Forsyth came into the game having needed nine innings to win the semi-final game against Mansfield the previous evening. The odds appeared to be in favor of Hartville but nobody explained that to Forsyth.
Forsyth was led by two freshmen who, according to Coach Byron Richardson, don’t play like freshmen.
“The freshmen were incredible tonight,” said Richardson. “They don’t play like freshmen; they’ve been in huge situations all year long and have risen to the occasion. I can’t ask for any more in pitching effort out of those young guys coming in and at the plate they did a great job.”
Forsyth freshman pitcher Tristan Hunter was on point tonight as he pitched six and 2/3 innings, striking out ten, walking two, and giving up two hits. He was on cruise control most of the night, except for the second inning when the first two Hartville hitters got on base with a single and a walk. Hunter struck out the next two hitters and got the final hitter to line out to third. After that inning he allowed only one runner to reach second base.
Hartville’s sophomore Brody McNiel went to-to-toe with Hunter, allowing Forsyth just three hits and two walks through his seven innings of work. McNiel helped his own cause by picking off three runners to end any threats Forsyth might have mounted.
The two teams needed an extra inning to decide the game. Hartville failed to score in the top of the eighth, which left an opening for Forsyth in the home half of the inning.
The eighth inning started quietly for Forsyth as their first two hitters had ground outs. After senior Keith Youngs reached base on a two-out single, Buck Sanders came to the plate. Sanders hit a fly ball to no-man’s-land in right field, just out of the reach of both the first baseman and the right fielder. Youngs easily scored from third, giving Forsyth the District title.
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“I want to give a shout out to my team and my coach, a great coach,” said Youngs. “It means the world to me and to my team as a whole. Great hit by Mason Campbell, great hit by Buck Sanders, I was just on the bag ready to score. We definitely want to keep winning. We’ve got a great coach, a great team and we’ve got a great rest of the year left. I was 1000% confident in the bottom of the 8th, you’ve always got to believe it and then you can achieve it.”
Hartville’s coach Clint Horn was complimentary of Forsyth and said he could not ask for a better championship game.
“Forsyth is a good team and it was a pitcher’s duel,” said Horn. “We fully expected that coming over here. They’ve got a freshman over there that’s really good, he held us scoreless for eight innings. Our sophomore went toe-to-toe with him and for a District championship I don’t think you could ask for a better game than that. It’s not the outcome that we wanted but our program is going to learn from it. Hopefully we get back here next year. We just talked about how next year we’ve got to execute better, we’ve gotta have nine guys that want to be up in those spots and execute and come through in a big spot. For us to take that next step as a program that’s what we are going to have to do. We lose three seniors this year, had them for four years. It’s my first group that I’ve seen through and we are really, really close. This is a rough one for us.”
Forsyth coach Richardson was proud of his team’s efforts and the way they competed.
“They show up every day, do things right, work hard, and try to get better every day,” said Richardson. “I’m super proud of their efforts, day in and day out. We’ve got five seniors and they’ve done a great job leading for us, stepping up and helping take the pressure off some of the young guys, and saying at times ‘we’ve got this’. You never know when it’s going to happen, we’ve just got to keep believing, keep fighting, and find a way. Find a way, that’s what we keep saying. It feels good; it’s nice to get a District championship back to Forsyth.”
Forsyth 1, Hartville 0
Hartville 000 000 00 — 0
Forsyth 000 000 01 — 1
