Jamestown successful season comes to an end

Christian DeVore swings at a pitch in the second inning of Jamestown's sectional-round game against New Franklin Monday, May 25. DeVore doubled off that pitch to lead off the inning.
Christian DeVore swings at a pitch in the second inning of Jamestown's sectional-round game against New Franklin Monday, May 25. DeVore doubled off that pitch to lead off the inning.

COLUMBIA -At first, it wasn't hard to see the frustration and sadness from the Jamestown players, coaches and fans after its 11-2 loss to New Franklin Monday in the sectional round, just two wins away from the state final four.

But little by little, those same people will remember they witnessed history this baseball season in Jamestown. The Eagles were crowned district champs for the first time in school history, and had an impressive 17-5 record before heading into their playoff game against the Bulldogs.

"I'm disappointed the season is over now," Jamestown coach Jordan Hoecker said. "If you take a step back, which is hard to do right now, when you look at the season, you have to be happy."

New Franklin, a team the Eagles defeated 7-4 earlier this month, is ranked No. 1 in the state in Class 1 and that was easy to tell after the first inning.

The Bulldogs used a four-spot in the opening frame to quickly grab control of the sectional-round game at Hickman High School. After Jamestown fought back and stayed within striking distance, New Franklin scored five more runs in the sixth inning to put the Eagles away for good.

"Our game plan was to just play baseball and make sure our heads were in it," Hoecker said. "We had a couple miscues, but fought throughout the game. As a competitor, you're disappointed."

The Bulldogs led off the first inning with a double to right, then back-to-back singles to plate a run before recording their first out. A sacrifice fly scored another run, then Levi Bishop homered to left to give New Franklin the 4-0 advantage.

In the second inning, Jamestown's Christian DeVore led off with a double to right field. Evan Knierim followed that up with a single to the third baseman to put two runners on with no outs. Colton DeVore sacrificed the runners over to put them in scoring position, but New Franklin got out of the inning with the help of miscommunication on the base paths.

When Garrett Jones grounded out to the pitcher, Knierim advanced to third. However, Christian DeVore stayed a third because because the pitcher looked his way before throwing Jones out at first. When Christian DeVore saw Knierim approaching third, he bolted for home only to have the catcher tag him out.

"We had a couple of chances to comeback," Hoecker said. "We made a couple base-running mistakes, which had been an issue throughout the season, and that kind of kept us in that hole for awhile. We had a lot of fight and a lot of chances."

After the Bulldogs scored another run in the third to push their lead to 5-0, the Eagles were able to scratch across a couple of runs. Alex Gerlach and Garrett Wolfe started the fourth inning off with back-to-back singles, and Evan Knierim doubled to left field two batters later to plate Jamestown's first run. Colton DeVore hit a sacrifice fly during the next at-bat to cut the lead to 5-2. Knierim was thrown out at third a split-second after the run scored to end the inning.

Wolfe started on the hill for the Eagles, but New Franklin chased out of the game in the third inning. He gave up five runs - four earned - on four hits and three walks. Gerlach pitched the next 2 2/3 innings, only allowing one earned run on three hits.

While Gerlach was holding the Bulldogs to an extent, the Eagles offense couldn't push across anymore runs before New Franklin exploded for a five-run sixth inning.

"After their four-run (first) inning, we came in and were ready to compete," Hoecker said. "We didn't get out of the hole. We were fighting till the last out. New Franklin got the better of us today, and we weren't playing our best."

Knierim led the offense by going 2-for-3 from the plate with an RBI.

The Eagles (17-6) had seven total hits and committed five errors.