By Kai Raymer (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
All season, the Willard Tigers have used senior pitcher Levi Hilton with caution – in hopes of keeping him fresh and sharp for the postseason.
In Friday night’s district championship game, that methodical approach paid off as Hilton delivered an A+ performance.
Hilton was superb over six innings and Willard blew the game open late to defeat Webb City 7-0 in the Class 5 District 6 Tournament championship game. On 78 pitches, Hilton shut down a Webb City lineup that was averaging 8.5 runs per game and riding a 16-game winning streak.
“I just kept throwing strikes and let my defense make the plays behind me,” Hilton said.
To his credit, Hilton saved his defense a lot of work, too.
Hilton finished with 10 strikeouts, no walks and one hit allowed. He retired 15 straight batters during one stretch, and only one allowed one Webb City baserunner to reach second base.
“As dominant of a high school pitching performance as I’ve seen,” Willard coach Scott McGee said of Hilton’s outing. “Webb City’s a good team. Levi was just so freaking good.”
In a matchup of Class 5’s top-ranked teams, and a showdown between two of the area’s top pitchers – Hilton and Webb City’s Tate Lewis – the contest lived up to its billing early on. Willard led 1-0 through five frames thanks to an RBI single from Easton Redd in the second inning.
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The game unraveled for Webb City in the sixth inning as Willard (30-8 overall) plated six runs with a combination of small-ball and power hitting.
Two Cardinal errors on infield misthrows led to a pair of Willard runs. Tyler Davis and Cade Hayer later added two-run doubles each to give the Tigers a sudden, seven-run cushion.
“Everyone just buys into their role on this team,” McGee said. “It allows us to be such a deep team. We’ve got some guys who can really hit, but we also have some guys who can do a lot of other things on offense to keep the line moving.
“The bunt game is a huge part of what we do, and we were able to execute there. It got us some extra base-runners.”
Senior pitcher Jack Anderson closed out the seventh inning for Willard, which won its first district title since its 2024 state title run. The Tigers have won five district titles overall since 2019.
Hilton threw 44 pitches in relief in Wednesday’s win over West Plains, which gave him a full quota (105 pitches) for Friday’s title game.
“We knew we were pulling him (if) he got to 45 (pitches) against West Plains,” McGee said. “If he threw (one) more pitch, he was coming out because we knew we needed him tonight.”
CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO OF THE GAME
Hilton came out fresh and firing Friday night, registering a season-high 91 mph on the radar gun in the first inning, according to McGee.
“It’s been awesome to be one of the top pitchers on the team. It’s cool to be put in these situations – my teammates and coaches trust me – against really good teams like Webb City,” Hilton said.
The Tigers will host Marshfield or Father Tolton in a best-of-three quarterfinal series next weekend, May 29-30.
Webb City, which had won four straight district titles, finishes 28-5 overall.
