For a brief moment, it looked like Lincoln would live up to coach Lynde's preseason hopes and win the district title.
Leading 4-3 with one out in the seventh, things looked good. Then the pitch count forced Hunter Vandaveer out of the game. From there, the wheels came off, as they say, and fourth seeded Weaubleau scored six runs to lead 9-4 and win out 9-6 over third seeded Lincoln to claim the Class 2 District 13 championship in Skyline on Wednesday.
The loss overshadowed a pretty solid performance by Vandaveer, both on the mound and at the plate. The sophomore took a page out of Dizzy Dean's book and allowed his defense to make plays. He struck out three, allowed seven hits and walked 0 in 6.1 innings.
At bat, Vandaveer went 2 for 4, driving in Dawson Parrott and Riley Sanders in the seventh for his third RBI of the day thus giving new life to the Cardinals team.
Lincoln had two runners on base before the Tigers' reliever struck out the last two batters.
Zack Brown started on the hill for Weaubleau. He gave up 4 runs on 9 hits, striking out 7 and walking 2.
Chance Koll relieved Vandaveer and took the loss.
Lincoln's Ethan Goosen made the defensive play of the game with a running stab of a ball in right field in the sixth inning that would have gone for a sure double.
Koll and Sanders hauled in line shots while Cam Everhart in center field camped under several hard hit fly balls.
The Tigers committed no errors on the day while Lincoln had 3; one each by Sanders,Vandaveer and Goosen. Both teams knotted 10 hits apiece.
The Tigers earned their way to the championship game by defeating fifth seed Skyline, 3-2 and one seed Marion C. Early, 3-1.
Lincoln made it to the title game as they won by forfeit over Osceola and clipped second seed Ash Grove, 6-5 in Ozark on Tuesday. Rain had caused the moving of that contest.
Riley Sanders went 5.1 innings and allowed 4 runs on 3 hits while striking out 5 and walking 5.
Dawson Parrott came in and allowed a run while loading the bases with no one out. Well, It was time for the sophomore to step up and he did, striking out the next two hitters and getting Alex Acosta to hit a ground ball back to him to preserve the sweet victory.
Five Cardinals each drove in a run, one scored on a passed ball and they stole four bases on the day with Vandaveer, Koll, Sanders and Goosen all getting a steal.
Lincoln ended their season at 16-12.The BCE will wrap up the season next week.
