Bloomfield falls to defending state baseball champion Cooter 9-1 in district semifinal

Note: A photo gallery of the semifinals is available at this link: Semifinal Photos

CAMPBELL, Mo. - The May success continued for Cooter junior hurler Tyler Battles Tuesday afternoon in a Class 2, District 1 semifinal against Bloomfield.

Battles, which entered the playoff six days removed from pitching eight scoreless relief innings in a 3-1 18-inning loss to No. 1 ranked Valle Catholic, collected a complete-game win against Bloomfield.

Battles allowed only one run on seven hits in seven innings pitched as top-seeded Cooter eliminated fourth-seeded Bloomfield 9-1.

"Tyler Battles wasn't even in our starting pitching rotation earlier in the year and he just kept getting better," Cooter coach Bobby McCulloch said of Battles, who has allowed only two runs in 24 2/3 innings of work so far this May. "He's our No. 1 or No. 2 right now and I like him."

The top of the Cooter lineup set the tone from the get-go against Bloomfield. Leadoff hitter Tyler McLevain collected a leadoff double in the bottom of the first inning. No. 2 hitter Battles followed with an RBI single and Chase Evans recorded a sacrifice fly later in the frame to give Cooter a 2-0 lead.

Bloomfield had at least one baserunner in every inning, but never recorded an RBI hit and stranded nine baserunners on the afternoon. Bloomfield scored its only run when a runner from third base broke home in the top of the seventh inning as another runner was caught in a run down between second and third base.

"We came up with big hits yesterday, but the hits just weren't there today," Bloomfield coach Tyler Trover said. "Credit the Battles kid out there. He really threw it well, mixed his pitches and made big pitches in big spots. We did a good job of scratching and clawing to get guys on, but we just couldn't come up with the big hit."

Bloomfield starting pitcher Noah Vandiver kept things close for a while even without run support.

Cooter led just 2-0 before calculating two runs in the fourth, five more in the fifth and its final run in the sixth inning.

"Noah was a little tight the first inning, but he really settled in and I thought that the biggest thing was he really pitched," Trover said. "He wasn't just throwing. He mixed his pitches up. Against a team like Cooter that is such a good hitting team you've really got to mix it up, keep them as off-balance as much as possible and hope you play pretty solid defensively. For about a three or four-inning stretch we kept it to 2-0 and was right there. Then we caught some bad luck in an inning and made an error and they scored several runs after that. Those things happen. It's baseball. This team has a lot to learn and fortunately we get them all back for another year. Hopefully, we can continue to improve and take it one step farther next year."

McLevain recorded a 2-RBI double in the fourth and an RBI single in the fifth inning on his way to a 3 for 4 performance with two doubles and a team-high three RBIs.

No. 9 hitter Dylan Crowder had a 2-RBI single in the fifth. Crowder finished 2 for 3 for Cooter with a double.

"McLevain is dangerous every time he comes up and Dylan is not an easy out," McColloch said. "Dylan is going to hit his .300 and hit well in key situations. He's a pretty good little ball player for a sophomore."

Peyton Curtis bunted a runner home in the fifth inning and Jeff Phelps added an RBI single in the sixth inning for Cooter.

"We want something up that we can hit," McColloch said of the hitting philosophy. "We chased some stuff early and got ourselves out. We like for the kids to sit on a pitch, but they are just kids and they get anxious."

Cooter made only one error behind Battles, who struck out four.

"I like our club defensively," McColloch said. "They are pretty darn good. We are pretty solid and have won several ball games with our defense."

Vandiver pitched the first five innings and Jacob Hector pitched the sixth inning for Bloomfield.

Jacob Hector finished 3 for 4 with a double and two singles. Alex Gibbs went 2 for 3 with a pair of singles for Bloomfield.

Bloomfield finishes its season with a record of 12-12. The Wildcats return all of the players on its roster next season.

"It's encouraging," Trover said. "I told the kids 'we finished 12-12 and that can't be good enough for us.' We try to set a standard that our ultimate goal is to someday win a district title. We do have some talent and pieces to work with, but if these guys want to get to that next level we are going to have to put a lot of work in during the offseason to take those next steps to become a more competitive team and team that can compete with Cooters and the Bernies of the world."

Cooter plays second-seeded Bernie in the district championship Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. at Campbell.

No. 1 Cooter 9, No. 4 Bloomfield 1

BHS 000 000 0 - 1 7 2

CHS 200 241 x - 9 9 1

WP - Tyler Battles. LP - Noah Vandiver. 2B - Jacob Hector (B), Tyler McLevain 2 (C), Riley Hickerson (C), Jeff Phelps (C), Dylan Crowder (C). Multiple hits - Cooter: McLevain 3-4, Hickerson 2-4, Crowder 2-3; Bloomfield: Jacob Hector 3-4, Alex Gibbs 2-3.