Sedalia News Journal

Cole Camp defeats Cardinals for first Kaysinger title in six years
By Kim Marcum
Sportswriter
The Cole Camp Bluebirds grabbed their first Kaysinger Conference Tournament championship in six years April 25, by defeating the Lincoln Cardinals 13-0 in five innings at Cole Camp High School.

The Bluebirds possessed power from the plate, banging out 12 hits including home runs by Trenton Miller and Tyler Rusk, while the defense completely shut down the Cardinals.

The game had originally been scheduled for Thursday at Liberty Park, but Mother Nature prevailed, forcing the game to take place a day later and at a different field.

The field was in good shape for the game, but the teams still had to battle cold, wind and temperatures in the 40s, but the conditions didn't seem to hamper the Bluebirds as their bats were on fire for the final.

'I'm proud of them they hit the ball well,' commented Cole Camp's head coach Todd Rusk. 'We've hit the ball well all year, knock on wood, I really can't complain about our offense.'

The defensive side of the Bluebirds were at the top of their game also, Garrett Gilbert went to the mound for Cole Camp and gave up only three hits, all in the final inning, as the team went error free in the game.

Cole Camp (8-1) started their attack in the bottom of the first inning. Gilbert led off the inning with a line drive to right field and the stole second. A bad throw to second on the steal advanced him over to third.

Cory Vance slapped a grounder to third and Gilbert scored after a bad throw home, making it 1-0.

Miller then extended the Bluebirds' lead, grabbing his first pitch and launched a line drive deep over the left center field fence for a two-run homer, stretching the lead to 3-0.

Andrew Yeager kept the drive alive with a base hit to shallow left and scored on another Lincoln fielding error, giving the Bluebirds a 4-0 lead at the end of one.

Cole Camp added two more runs in the bottom of the second. Gilbert picked up his second base hit of the game, again to right field and again stole second.

Miller picked up his third RBI of the game with a hard hit double to center scoring Gilbert, giving the Bluebirds a 5-0 cushion.

Yeager then slapped a ball through the gap at short and scored Miller, as the Bluebirds jumped ahead 6-0 at the end of two.

The heat from the Bluebirds bats continued in the bottom of the third. Zach Kollbaum led off with a double to left center and came home when Josh Jackson reached on a throwing error.

Ron Herdman picked up his first base hit of the game with hard hit ball to center field for a double, scoring Jackson making it 8-0.

Gilbert picked up his third hit of the game, laying down a perfect bunt that died in front of home plate, scoring a run and then came home on another Lincoln error.

'He (Garrett) was focused, there is no doubt about that. He had his game face on,' said Rusk. 'He was focused on both sides of the ball.'

Cole Camp scored four runs in the third inning off three hits and took a 10-0 lead into the fourth inning.

Cole Camp picked up three more runs in the bottom of the fourth to ice the championship.

Yeager led off the inning with a walk and then Tyler Rusk took a 1-1 pitch and lined a hard hit ball over the fence in left field for a two-run home run.

Kollbaum reached base for his third time in the game with a base hit to left field and stretched his single into a triple on bad throw on the play.

Jackson ended the scoring in the game with a long hit ball to left field scoring Kollbaum on a sacrifice, giving the Bluebirds a 13-0 lead.

Lincoln had been held hitless in the first four innings, but blasted out three in the top of the fifth, but Gilbert fanned three batters in the inning ending the game on the 10-run mercy rule.

'That's a big conference win and obviously to win the conference for the first time in six years, that's pretty special,' said Rusk.

Gilbert paced the Bluebirds going 3-3 with three runs and a RBI. Miller punched out two hits on two runs and had three RBIs and a home run.

Yeager went 2-2 with two runs scored. Kollbaum followed with two runs on two hits and a RBI and Rusk had one-run on one-hit with two RBIs and a home run.