Blue Springs South stages late comeback, loses in state baseball semifinals

Blue Springs South showed heart after trailing early against Vianney but fell 5-3 in Thursday's Missouri Class 5 state high school baseball semifinals at CarShield Field in O'Fallon.

Pitcher Luke Mann opened the scoring for Vianney (36-2) in the bottom of the first inning. Mann, committed to the Missouri Tigers, launched a three-run homer to the opposite field.

Blue Springs South (22-9) got one run back in the top of the second on a couple of Vianney errors, scored another on two hits in the fifth and tied the game atop the sixth, but the Griffins pulled away for good with two runs in the bottom of the frame.

DeSmet (21-7) played Hickman (26-10) in the later semifinal.

Blue Springs South plays for third place at 11 a.m. Friday. The Missouri Class 5 championship game is at 1:30 p.m.

Class 4

Excelsior Springs (20-9) meets St. Mary's (17-10) of St. Louis in Friday's semifinals. First pitch is slated for 4 p.m.

The other Class 4 semifinal features Boonville (24-1) vs. Aurora (29-1) at 6:30.

The winners of those games will meet to decide the Missouri Class 4 championship on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

Other classes

State champs were also crowned in Missouri's smaller classifications this week:

Class 1 — Oran beat St. Elizabeth 4-1 Thursday.

Class 2 — Valle Catholic beat Mansfield 12-5 Tuesday.

Class 3 — Malden beat Strafford 9-8 Wednesday.

This story was originally published May 31, 2018 at 6:01 PM with the headline "Blue Springs South stages late comeback, loses in state baseball semifinals."