Ian Brown's shutout lifts Festus past Fort Zumwalt South in Missouri Class 5 semifinals

Senior southpaw Brown completes Tigers' fourth straight playoff shutout

OZARK, Mo. – This was what Ian Brown worked so hard for.

The senior southpaw was the ace of the Festus pitching staff a year ago, but a labrum injury followed by months upon months of grueling physical therapy and rehab left some doubts as to when he’d be back on a mound.

Brown proved on Friday he is back at 100 percent. He tossed a complete-game shutout to lead the Tigers to a 2-0 victory over Fort Zumwalt South in the Missouri Class 5 semifinals at Sky Bacon Stadium and help Festus return to the title game for the second straight season.

“My labrum tore on both sides because of a bone that broke off, so I had to get surgery on that and it was about six to nine months recovery,” Brown said. “I spent all the time in PT and it’s paying off now. So I’m excited and I’m (freaking) pumped.”

Festus (26-8), which lost to Platte County in the championship game a year ago, will play either St. Francis Borgia (25-5) at 1 p.m. Saturday with an opportunity to win the first state title in program history.

“It’s a tough competitive group,” Festus coach Jeff Montgomery said. “They stuck together all year. We had the target on our back this year. It’s tough to get back. They are pretty determined. They are a pretty determined group. Ian Brown, we knew he was capable of doing that, but outstanding performance by him.”

Festus senior lefthander Ian Brown celebrates as the Tigers advance to the Class 5 title game / Nate Latsch photo

Brown (5-0), who scattered seven hits over his seven innings while striking out eight batters and walking just one, finished off the fourth straight shutout for Festus.

Brown and Nate Moore combined to shut out North County in the Class 5 District 1 semifinals. Mason Schirmer and Moore combined to shut out Windsor in the district title game. Then Moore tossed a six-inning shutout against Clayton in the quarterfinals to get the Tigers back to Ozark for the final four.

Brown’s performance against a tough Zumwalt South (27-7-1) squad will be remembered for everything he had to go through to get back on the mound.

“Ian’s coming off an injury,” Montgomery said. “He was our guy, our dude, last year and he got hurt. What a story.”

“All winter, he didn’t have any idea if he was going to be able to get back,” Montgomery added. “We’ve got boys signing scholarships to go play and he gets kind of left out because everybody is waiting on how that labrum is going to heal. Losing him last year was huge and it kind of motivated us where everybody had to do more. Last year and this year just seeing him step up in that role under the big lights, if you will, I’m not at all surprised because he’s such a competitor. I know he was excited to get the ball today and he just pitched a great game.”

This was what Brown worked for.

“I just thought 100 percent about getting back on the mound,” Brown said. “That’s all I wanted to do. I love it. I just pushed through. I had my family there to help me. I had my boys there to help me.”

Brown’s boys had his back on Friday.

Zumwalt South lefty Carter Cox (6-2) was stingy and made life difficult on the Festus lineup. He surrendered just one earned run on five hits, while striking out eight and walking five, over 5 2/3 innings.

“He’s really good,” Montgomery said of Cox. “We knew that. We saw him in March a little bit. He’s just got really good velocity and movement and he kind of sets up his changeup and his curveball. He’s a real tough competitor and we were fortunate to get two runs there that put us in a good spot and luckily we were able to hold on. But hats off to him, he pitched a great game.”

The Tigers scored those two runs in the top of the third inning – senior catcher Tyler Bizzle drove in a run on an fielder’s choice and junior second baseman Jeremiah Cunningham scored on a passed ball with two outs – and then held off the Bulldogs for the final five innings with a mix of moxie from Brown and several impressive defensive plays.

Bizzle threw out a runner attempting to steal to end the bottom of the sixth inning. Then junior shortstop Hayden Bates made a clutch diving stop on a tough ground ball to start the seventh inning and Schirmer, a sophomore first baseman, picked the one-hopper throw from Bates to get the first out.

Brown then struck out the final two batters to finish it.

“Our defense got behind our pitcher,” Montgomery said. “Our catcher is an outstanding catcher. Tyler Bizzle’s had a great career. He’s a great catch-and-throw guy. He gets challenged occasionally. Most teams don’t run on him because they know he’s that good. … Bates has really worked hard on his defense. He’s just played a great game. He’s an All-State caliber guy. Then Mason makes that pick at first on the throw.”

“These guys came into this believing they can win the whole thing and we’re in a good position,” the coach added. “Hopefully we can do that now.”

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Festus-Fort Zumwalt South Missouri Class 5 semifinal

Photos from Nate Latsch