Liberty Blue Jays pull late shift, claim first baseball title since 2002 with 8-4 win
The Liberty High baseball program will have a hard time topping this midnight special in the annals of all-time great stories around the school’s athletic department.
Beginning Saturday night’s Missouri Class 6 state championship game at U.S. Baseball Park in Ozark well more than two hours late because of delays in earlier games, the Blue Jays beat Fort Zumwalt West 8-4 for the title.
The game concluded after the stroke of 12 a.m. with a line-out to second and the Blue Jays doubling off a Fort Zumwalt West runner.
Junior Brock Toney started the game on the hill for Liberty. The Blue Jays got a run for him early, when Ryan Williams grounded into a double play that allowed a runner to score. The Jays had loaded the bases on a single, walk and bunt.
Jeremiah Cabuyaban then walked and stole second with two outs as the runner on third, Dawson Goe, raced home for a second run. Liberty added one more in the frame when Palmer Holst singled home Cabuyaban.
Fort Zumwalt got two runs back in the second on a single. Goe laid down a bunt that scored a run in the second, and Aiden Watson doubled home two more to make it 6-2 Liberty.
Williams lined one to third, then wound up scoring a seventh run during a wild sequence that included a throwing error by Fort Zumwalt West.
Fort Zumwalt West put two more runs on the board in the fourth, but they were the last they’d score.
Liberty’s final run came in the sixth on a passed ball.
The Kirk Bragg-coached Blue Jays flexed their muscles at the plate in winning this championship. On Friday, Liberty beat Christian Brothers College 8-2 in the Class 6 semifinals.
Grain Valley falls in Class 5 final
Grain Valley was just a couple of outs from a state championship in baseball Saturday afternoon.
The Eagles picked up two big runs on hits by Parker Bosserman and Kaden Jeffries in the top of the sixth inning in taking an 8-7 lead in the Missouri Class 5 title game against Willard in Ozark.
But Willard answered with the definitive two-run inning in the bottom of the seventh for the 9-8 victory over Grain Valley and the Class 5 championship in a battle from start to finish.
Grain Valley had beaten Smithville and Rockwood Summit in the state tournament to reach the final against Willard.
This story was originally published June 6, 2021 at 12:24 AM.