ST. ELIZABETH - Jamestown's goal of winning the district tournament is now complete, but Eagles' coach Jordan Hoecker isn't ready to celebrate his team's successful season just yet.
"We're not satisfied yet," Hoecker said. "I'm really happy we got this goal, but now we're moving on to our next one."
With the 6-1 win against St. Elizabeth in Thursday's Class 1 District 9 championship, Jamestown will play host to New Franklin. The Eagles' home-field is too small for Missouri High School Activities Association standards, so the location and time - determined by Jamestown - hasn't been announced yet.
But for the time being, Hoecker was going to enjoy Jamestown's first district title in the school's history.
"It feels really good," said Hoecker, a St. Elizabeth native. "These guys worked hard for it and it's good to see them accomplish what they set out for."
After pitching two shutout innings in relief in Tuesday's semifinal win against Prairie Home, Garrett Wolfe got the start on the bump for the Eagles. He pitched a complete game, allowing just one earned run on six hits while striking out 11. Four of the six hits came in the seventh inning when Jamestown was leading 6-0.
"He's a gamer," Hoecker said. "He does what he needs to do to compete. He's always out there with a competitive spirit."
Wolfe retired 15 straight Hornets spanning from the second inning to the sixth.
He was also 2-for-2 from the plate with a single, a double, two runs scored and two walks.
"Our game plan was not to chase his curve ball," said St. Elizabeth coach Nick Voss. "We just weren't disciplined enough at the plate to let it go. We swung at a lot of them in the dirt."
After stranding five baserunners in the first two innings, Wolfe led off the third inning with a one-hopper to the fence for a double. But after a fly out, an intentional walk and a strikeout, it looked the Eagles would strand two more runners.
"We get them on base, so that's a good start," Hoecker said. "We left a lot of guys on base, but we still scored six."
After Garrett Jones singled to the shortstop, Wolfe scored on a passed ball which was a close play at the plate. The ball beat Wolfe to the plate, but the umpired ruled him safe to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead. The home-plate umpire told Voss that Wolfe slid under the tag.
That was all the run support Wolfe needed on the mound, putting up four straight 1-2-3 innings on the board.
Jamestown finally broke it open in the fifth inning, scoring three runs. Wolfe walked to start the inning and Christian DeVore laid down a sacrifice bunt to move him to second. The St. Elizabeth catcher tried to throw out Wolfe, but was unsuccessful. Evan Knierim followed that up with a double to left field to score the first run of the inning.
"That was huge," Hoecker said of Knierim's double. "Whenever you can get the momentum swinging in your direction, that's big."
Two sacrifice flies by Colton DeVore and Jones score two more runners, pushing the Eagle lead to 4-0. Up until that inning, Jamestown stranded seven baserunners and had two hits.
"We wanted to keep them off-balance," Voss said. "We had Alex (Goeller) going, and he's usually pretty good at throwing curveballs for strikes. In that last inning he pitched, they did a really good job of putting the bat on the ball."
The Eagles added two insurance runs in the sixth to extend the lead to 6-0. Alex Gerlach and Wolfe led off the inning with back-to-back singles, then two batters later, Knierim singled to left to score Gerlach. Colton DeVore reached on an error to load the bases, then Jones grounded into a fielder's choice to plate another run.
Knierim finished the day going 2-for-3 with two RBI and a run scored.
St. Elizabeth did make it interesting in the seventh inning, scoring a quick run before loading the bases. But Preston Otto flied out to Jamestown's right fielder, Cole Theissen, then he fired the ball to second for a game-ending double play.
Jamestown (17-5) will now turn its attention to Class 1 District 10 winner New Franklin (20-5). The Eagles defeated the Bulldogs 7-4 earlier this month.