Battle-tested South Callaway rallies past Montgomery Co. in district semifinals

South Callaway sophomore Owen Rees celebrates with head coach Heath Lepper after sliding into third base with a game-tying triple against Montgomery County in Monday’s Class 3 District 7 semifinal game in Mokane. Senior Jacob Lallier hit a double afterward to give the Bulldogs a 6-5 lead. (Jeremy Jacob/FULTON SUN)
South Callaway sophomore Owen Rees celebrates with head coach Heath Lepper after sliding into third base with a game-tying triple against Montgomery County in Monday’s Class 3 District 7 semifinal game in Mokane. Senior Jacob Lallier hit a double afterward to give the Bulldogs a 6-5 lead. (Jeremy Jacob/FULTON SUN)

Down by one run and on its last strike, South Callaway had to rally against Montgomery County’s best pitcher Monday.

Owen Rees tied the Class 3 District 7 Tournament semifinal game in Mokane with a triple before senior Jacob Lallier hit a double to give South Callaway the lead for good and a 6-5 victory.

The Bulldogs were trailing 5-4 and were one strike away from losing twice against the Wildcats and pitcher Evan Abercrombie, who already had nine strikeouts. But JT Thomas, Rees and Lallier each picked up hits to send South Callaway to the district title game at 5 p.m. Wednesday against Class 3 No. 10 Father Tolton (13-3).

South Callaway coach Heath Lepper said his team has played through tough situations all season and were prepared, even with defeat so close. He said Thomas’ and Rees’ at-bats where they worked the count to 3-2 before coming through showed what the Bulldogs (14-14) are all about this season.

“The schedule we play all year long is a pretty tough one,” Lepper said. “These boys have played in some ballgames where they’ve had to come from behind against quality opponents. I think it’s prepared them well for moments like this. As long as you have one strike left, there’s still some life left.”

The momentum was firmly in Montgomery County’s favor early as Abercrombie struck out the side after allowing a leadoff double to junior Jacob Martin in the first inning. The Wildcats (10-8) loaded the bases against Rees and took a 2-0 lead on a single by Jace Ellis.

Lepper made the decision to put Dane Daugherty on the mound with one out in the first inning. Daugherty came out of the first inning allowing one more run and allowed five hits, three walks and two unearned runs in 5⅔ innings.

“That’s big for a sophomore to come in and get five innings of work in,” Lepper said. “Defensively, we got to get ahead, and we got to challenge their hitters. If we make them hit our pitches instead of their pitches, they’ll be successful and Dane did a pretty good job of that.”

Abercrombie appeared to be rolling like he did April 2 on South Callaway’s field in a 4-0 shutout of the Bulldogs — 10 strikeouts and two hits allowed — as he had retired nine straight batters at one point Monday with six strikeouts (three of them looking). In the fourth inning, that gradually started to change.

South Callaway picked up two soft hits to lead off the inning prior to Lallier driving in a run via a groundout and Rees scoring on sophomore Ryan Lepper’s infield ground ball, making it 3-2 Montgomery County.

The Wildcats got those runs back in the bottom half of the fourth after loading the bases with no outs. South Callaway’s lone error of the game was committed on a play at the plate that extended the inning for Ellis’ sacrifice fly, giving him three RBI and Montgomery County a 5-2 lead after four innings.

The hits became more and more solid as the game wore on as South Callaway scored two runs in the fifth inning to make it 5-4 Wildcats. Trace Helsel hit a leadoff double and then scored on a single by Martin. Martin made the trip to home on a single by Rees.

“We talk about getting better every at-bat, every pitch,” Lepper said. “They just kept fighting.”

South Callaway turned a couple double plays to end Montgomery County innings in the fifth and sixth innings.

Thomas tried to get something going with two outs in the seventh inning but was down to his final strike after taking a 3-1 pitch in the zone. He took the next pitch the other way prior to advancing on a passed ball with Rees at the plate.

With his short outing on the mound far in the rearview mirror, Rees worked through a nine-pitch at-bat before sending Abercrombie’s 102nd pitch of the game the other way, allowing Thomas to make the turn around third base with a determined grimace on his face and Rees to slide in with a triple. Lallier, meanwhile, didn’t wait around as he drove the first pitch he saw to the fence for a game-winning double.

“They changed their approach and were short and quick to the ball,” Lepper said. “They put really good swings on the ball, and it worked out well.”

Montgomery County appeared to be making its own rally in the bottom half of the inning when Harrison Bishop sent the first pitch he saw from the new pitcher Martin to the fence. He made the turn at second base to rumble toward base but made the first out at third base as the leadoff batter.

Daugherty was done pitching but wasn’t done using his arm as he made a cutoff throw to Thomas from center field before Thomas sent the relay throw to Helsel, who slapped the tag on Bishop’s arm. Martin struck out the next two Wildcats to send the Bulldogs to the district title game.

Rees finished 3-for-4 with two RBI, Thomas went 2-for-3 with two runs scored, Martin was 2-for-4 with an RBI and a double and Lallier drove in two runs. The Bulldogs finished with 10 hits.

Lepper said the relay play was big, as it kept the bases clean in a one-run game. But it demonstrated an important mantra for South Callaway heading into Wednesday’s game with Tolton, who defeated North Callaway 11-1 in five innings Monday.

“It takes two or three guys to make a play,” Lepper said. “Dane didnt’t give up on it, comes up and fires the ball to the cut. The cut makes a good throw. Guy at third has to catch it, Helsel puts a good tag on him and it’s a heck of a play.”