Willard baseball squad advances to Class 5 final four

After last week’s games, the Willard High School baseball team is just two wins away from being crowned Class 5 state champions. The Tigers knocked off Webb City in the sectional round and Glendale in the quarterfinals to advance to this weekend’s Class 5 Final Four.
Willard traveled to Springfield, on Thursday, May 23, to compete in the quarterfinals and came home with a 4-2 win.
Willard trailed 1-0 entering the bottom of the fourth inning and after tying the game at 1-1, Ethan Thompson hit the first pitch he saw over the fence for a three-run home run to give Willard a 4-1 lead. Glendale would add another run in the top of the seventh but the Tigers would hang on for the 4-2 victory.
Thompson went 1-3 with a home run, a run scored and three RBI’s and Jacob VanDoren was 1-2 with a run scored and an RBI.
Willard had to make the trip down I-44 to Webb City on Tuesday, May 21, to play in the sectional round but came away with an easy 10-1 win.
Webb City jumped out to a 1-0 first inning lead but that is all the offense the Cardinals could muster, as Willard scored single runs in the second and sixth innings; two runs in the third inning and six runs in the fifth inning.
Cole Biellier went 1-3 with a home run, a run scored and an RBI; Noah Wooldridge was 2-4 with a run scored and two RBI’s, Grant Harris was 2-4 with a run scored and two RBI’s, Tyler Harre went 1-3 with two RBI’s, Reece Dawson was 1-4 with two RBI’s and Thompson finished 1-4 with a double and a run scored.
Willard will now travel to O’Fallon this Friday to take on Marquette in the semifinal round of the Class 5 tournament. DeSmet takes on Staley in the other semifinal game. The championship and third place games will take place on Saturday.
This is the first time since the 2012-13 season that Willard has returned to the final four. In that season, Willard defeated Staley to finish third.

Track
Willard sent five athletes to compete in last weekend’s Class 4 track state championships in Jefferson City.
For the girls, Tassilyn Bolin won the pole vault with a vault of 11’ 9” and Kaitlyn Burson finished third in the shot put with a toss of 40’ 8” and ninth in the discus with a throw of 116’ 5”.
On the boys side, Marshall Swadley finished third in the shot put with a toss of 52’ 2.25”; Jedidah Brandon was 11th in the javelin with a throw of 153’ 7” and Elijah Aye finished fifth in the 100 meter dash with a time of 11.18 and 11th in the 200 meter dash with a time of 22.75.