Salisbury beats Chaffee in Missouri Class 2 semifinals for 24th straight win

Eli Jackson scores four runs in Panthers' 11-5 victory

OZARK, Mo. – The Salisbury baseball team seemed to have an answer for everything Chaffee threw at them on Monday.

It wasn’t always pretty, but the Panthers just kept battling and battling and took advantage of five errors by the Red Devils to win their Missouri Class 2 semifinal showdown 11-5 at Sky Bacon Stadium and advance to Tuesday’s championship game.

“Just keep battling,” Salisbury coach Nate King said.

The Panthers (24-1), who have now won 24 consecutive games, allowed two runs in the top of the first inning with a costly error, but pitcher Eli Wekenborg prevented further damage by snagging a ground ball behind his back to record the third out.

“He’s got incredible reflexes,” King said. “He’s done stuff like that all year. Since he was a sophomore, he’s done stuff like that. Making the huge mistake that we did and only giving up two runs, we felt good to get out of it with only two runs. Both teams seemed like they wanted to give the game around one time or another. I know that had to be a horrible game for them on defense.”

Salisbury then answered with three runs in the bottom of the first, with a single by Aidan West driving in two runs and an error by Chaffee (21-10) allowing the third run to score. The Red Devils committed two errors in the first inning and five for the game.

“I talked about all the mistakes their defense made, but to our hitters’ credit they kept battling, they kept putting the ball in play, they kept hitting the ball hard,” King said. “There were several balls that were scorched in that game and on defense they kept making plays.”

Salisbury added two runs in the third on an RBI single by Wekenborg and an error.

The Panthers led 5-2 after three innings but kept answering whenever Chaffee tried to push back.

When the Red Devils scored in the top of the fifth inning, Salisbury answered with two runs. When Chafee scored two in the sixth, cutting the deficit to 7-5, the resilient Panthers put together a four-run bottom of the sixth to break the game open.

Brady Graskewicz, Ethan Hamilton and Ryan Binder each accounted for two of Salisbury’s 11 hits. Graskewicz, a junior first baseman, drove in three runs while West and Binder each plated a pair. Outfielder Eli Jackson scored a team-high four runs.

Wekenborg (9-1) had one of his toughest outings of the season, allowing five earned runs on eight hits, walking seven and striking out five in 5 1/3 innings, but he did enough to keep his team in it. Binder came on in relief and allowed just one hit in 1 2/3 innings.

“They got the job done and our pitching is intact for tomorrow the way we wanted it to be,” King said. “So we feel good about that.”

Levi McKinnie (7-2) took the loss on the mound for Chafee after allowing nine runs (six earned) on eight hits over 5 2/3 innings. He struck out eight and walked two. He had two of the Red Devils’ nine hits and also scored a run. Right fielder Carson Spies added two hits and two RBIs.

A year ago the Panthers were knocked out the playoffs with a sectional loss to Russellville, only to watch Russellville run through the playoffs and win the Class 2 championship.

Now, Salisbury will have a shot at the ultimate prize. The Panthers will play either Ash Grove (24-0) in the Class 2 title game at 7 p.m. Tuesday. 

• MSHSAA PLAYOFF BRACKETS

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Salisbury-Chaffee Missouri Class 2 baseball semifinal

Photos from Nate Latsch