Liberty Blue Jays beat CBC, advance to title game in baseball. Here’s how it went down

The Liberty Blue Jays are one win away from their first state championship in baseball since 2002.

Liberty beat Christian Brothers College 8-2 Friday afternoon in the state semifinals of the Missouri Class 6 high school tournament at U.S. Baseball Park in Ozark.

The Kirk Bragg-coached Blue Jays will play Fort Zumwalt West, which beat Jefferson City 11-0 in five innings Friday night, for the state title Saturday at 6:30 p.m.

Friday’s first semifinal was certainly a thrilling-enough affair. Liberty sophomore Kai Bennett pitched 5 2/3 innings of two-run ball, his offense gave him ample help and the Blue Jays’ defense did the rest.

Liberty scored its first run in the opening frame, loading the bases on a pair of singles and a walk for junior designated hitter Jeremiah Cabuyaban, who drove in Dawson Goe with a grounder.

CBC evened the score in the bottom half of the inning, scoring a run on a groundout, then pulled ahead in the second on a solo homer by Nazzan Zanetello.

Liberty knotted it again in the third when Ryan Williams drove home Aiden Watson, who had reached on a two-out single. Watson scored from first on the play before Williams was tagged out at second.

The game stayed that way, tied at 2, until the Jays scored twice on three hits in the top of the fifth. Chase Littrell led off with a single. CBC made a pitching change, and switch-hitter Addison Smith greeted the new hurler with another base hit.

That put runners on first and second. Dawson Goe advanced them with a flyout to right and Watson drove in Littrell with a sacrifice fly to left field. A single to right plated Smith and it was 4-2 Liberty.

The Jays pieced together another big inning in the seventh to put the game all but out of reach for CBC. They loaded the bases with no outs, and Watson drove in one run with a liner to left.

CBC made another pitching change and Williams followed it with a chopper over the second baseman’s head, bringing in two more. A Cabuyaban bunt to the pitcher accounted for an out, Liberty’s first of the inning, but the sequence also allowed another Blue Jay to score.

At that point, it was 8-2 Liberty. And the Jays, who advanced to the semifinal round with 5-2 win over Ray-Pec in the quarterfinals, were on their way to the state final.

This story was originally published June 4, 2021 at 7:42 PM.