Francis Howell holds off Jackson comeback attempt to win Missouri Class 6 semifinal
OZARK, Mo. – When the Francis Howell baseball team entered the seventh inning with a seven-run lead over Jackson in their Class 6 semifinal on Friday night, it looked like a foregone conclusion the Vikings would win and advance.
It wasn’t.
Jackson fought back with a furious comeback attempt, scoring six runs and getting the tying run to second base and go-ahead run on first, but Howell reliever Evan Piwowarski extinguished the fire by retiring the final two batters.
Final score: Francis Howell 9, Jackson 8.
“Stressful. Very stressful,” Francis Howell coach Tony Perkins said. “But you know, it’s high school ball, stuff happens. And a lot of stuff happened, you know? We kicked it around. We had some hits. They ain’t going to quit and roll over.”
Francis Howell (31-10), which finished third in Class 6 a year ago, will play reigning champion Liberty North (33-7) in the championship game at 7 p.m. at Sky Bacon Stadium. It will be a rematch of last year’s semifinals.
The Vikings have won four state championships in the past 20 years under Perkins – 2003, 2011, 2013 and 2016 – and finished second twice (2008, 2014).
Jackson (33-7) will face Nixa (32-7) in the third-place game at 4 p.m.
“One of the characteristics of our guys is they don’t give up,” Jackson coach Josh Roach said. “A lot of teams that I’ve coached before, in that situation they would have been like, oh well, let’s try for the third-place game. But these guys didn’t. They fought and they almost pulled an amazing feat off. But we put ourselves in a hole early, didn’t play our game defensively. We’ve been really, really solid all year and made some key mistakes. Francis Howell is a really good team. Capitalized on it. When you give good teams extra outs it’s really hard to beat them.”
After giving up two runs in the first inning on Friday, Howell starting pitcher Brysen Nepute settled in with five scoreless frames. The offense tied the score with two runs in the second, then broke open the game with a five-run fourth inning that included three hits and taking advantage of two Jackson errors.
Senior first baseman Brett Norfleet had a key two-run single in the inning as Howell took a 7-2 lead.
The Vikings added two more runs in the sixth with an RBI double from sophomore center fielder Leo Humbert and an RBI sacrifice fly by sophomore left fielder Jackson Vaughn. It turned out the 9-2 advantage wasn’t safe.
Jackson (33-7) scored six runs on three hits and took advantage of two Howell errors in the top of the seventh inning. Sophomore left fielder Cooper Rhodes had the big hit with a two-run double and senior pitcher and Missouri State signee Caden Bogenpohl added an RBI single.
Jackson had the tying run on second base and go-ahead run on first with one out, but wasn’t able to capitalize. Piwowarski got the first batter he faced to fly out to right field. Then the next batter popped up in the infield, which was calmly caught by Piwowarski himself.
“I’ve been told I’m kind of a zombie when it comes to emotion,” said Piwowarski, who earned his fourth save of the season. “So honestly it was just like another day at the ballpark. I’m used to that stuff. I mean I’ve been put in situations like that before – clearly not in a final four game – but I didn’t think of it as a final four game. It’s just another game. So we got the win.”
Perkins, who has 640 wins in his long coaching career, said he was proud of how Nepute settled down after the first inning to put up five scoreless frames and then of Piwowarski for how he handled the finish.
It was not the kind of game Perkins was expecting coming in.
“I really thought beforehand that it would just be low scoring,” Perkins said. “But I was wrong. Fortunately, we had more than they had.”
• MSHSAA PLAYOFF BRACKETS | BASEBALL RANKINGS
MISSOURI BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Jack Nobe's two-hit shutout leads St. Francis Borgia past Webb City in Missouri Class 5 semifinals
Ian Brown's shutout lifts Festus past Fort Zumwalt South in Class 5 semifinals
Kellar Davis pitches Licking past South Callaway in Missouri Class 3 title game
John Burroughs edges Fulton in Class 4 semifinals
Nine-run inning fuels South Callaway in Class 3 semifinal win over Portageville
Ash Grove caps off undefeated season with win over Salisbury in Missouri Class 2 championship game
St. Elizabeth tops South Nodaway to win second straight Class 1 baseball championship
Salisbury beats Chaffee in Class 2 semifinals for 24th straight win
Photo gallery: South Nodaway downs Community in Class 1 semifinal
Caleb Oligschlaeger's shutout helps reigning Class 1 champion St. Elizabeth top Cooter in semifinals
