Dora erupts to deny Chiefs repeat title

The anguish of making the last out of the last game of the season, with a state title at stake, was written on the face of Chiefs senior Logan Kirchhoff. (Chris Allen/Democrat-News) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

That's how close the Santa Fe baseball team was from claiming back-to-back MSHSAA Class 1 championship Thursday.

The Chiefs were one inning away, then one out away, then one strike away -- but Dora's six runs in the top of the seventh inning brought the Falcons back from the brink of defeat to an 8-5 victory for their first state title.

"Heartbreak" dominant emotion felt by Santa Fe senior Taylor Wesley as he unsuccessfully tried to choke off tears.

Wesley took the hard-luck loss as a defense which had performed well throughout the game, turning two double plays during the middle frames, finally collapsed.

The seventh inning's second error, putting Dora in front after being down by as many as four runs, followed a series of miscues -- but Wesley is too much of a leader to point fingers.

"I love everybody, can't get mad," he said. "You've got to keep your head up and keep moving. That's life."

No wonder Chiefs head coach Josh Fisher noted that "it's not so much losing the game as it is losing these seniors" which hurt the most. "I've learned more from those boys than they've learned from me these four years."

The Falcons (23-3) drew first blood on singles by sophomore Justin VonAllmen and senior Dalton Hunter in the top of the first, but Santa Fe evened matters during its turn when junior Matt Lovercamp tripled over the center fielder's head and came in on Wesley's single.

For the next four innings, Dora was blanked, aided by a double play engineered by freshman second baseman Dalton Wilkinson on a bouncer up the middle with runners on first and second and one out in the third.

A booted grounder, single by junior Jake Hollingsworth and sophomore Nathan Wesley's sacrifice fly put the Chiefs ahead in the second.

Lovercamp and Taylor Wesley singled and scored in the third, but Santa Fe stranded a runner who reached third with one out. The Chiefs left seven runners on base, four in scoring position, a waste which would come back to haunt them.

"We're used to having big innings, where we knock 3, 4, 5 runs in," Fisher said. "It just didn't happen for us."

Santa Fe's 5-1 lead following senior Ben Catlett's RBI single in the fifth still looked good -- until an error gave the Falcons a run in the sixth after VonAllmen led off with a single.

Junior Billy Ely singled to begin the Dora seventh. A catcher's interference call put a second runner on base, but a strikeout and roller to second appeared to quell the rally potential.

Unfortunately, Wilkinson threw the ball past first baseman Nathan Wesley, letting one run cross.

Another runner came in on VonAllmen's ground out to second base, but Wesley still had a one-run lead and worked a 1-2 count on Hunter -- who escaped by letting a pitch hit him.

Begley singled in the tying run and, after an error and hit batter stuffed the sacks, senior Logan Kirchhoff -- Wednesday's semifinal winner -- relieved and was greeted by an Ely single up the middle to plate two runs.

"There's mistakes, and mistakes will hurt you," Fisher said. "There are balls that could have been stopped, should have been stopped. It happens to the best of them."

Wesley led off the bottom of the seventh with a single, but Hunter retired the next three batters to nail down the win.

Just like in basketball, which reached the playoffs this past season, the Chiefs' upperclassmen learned from their struggles as freshmen on the diamond -- going from 5-7 in 2006 to 52-8 and three Final Four appearances, including the undefeated state championship run of '08.

"It was down when I first got here and nobody cared about baseball," Wesley recalled. "Now it's like the sport people should pay attention to. We've earned respect."

So while Wesley mulls over an offer presented him Wednesday from Drury University, which hosted the event at Springfield's Meador Park, and Catlett looks toward Northwest Missouri State after receiving an e-mail Thursday morning saying the school wanted him on its baseball team, Santa Fe's youngsters ponder how they'll add to the legacy.

"Some teams never get here," Fisher told the club during its last post-game meeting of the season. The Chiefs (17-2)? Holding out three fingers, he observed, "Three times."