Grain Valley edges Fort Osage

4/1/2025

by Bill Althaus, Grain Valley News

With two quick outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, it was up to Grain Valley's No. 9 hitter Aaron Barr to keep the inning alive.

Barr, who has struggled with at 'em ball - where he hits the ball hard, but right at a defensive player - stroked a single up the middle off gutsy Fort Osage starter Bogan Weikel, who had allowed two earned runs through six innings.

That brought Logan Bennett, the Eagles leadoff hitter to the plate. He hit a line drive to centerfield, while Barr was taking off from first at the crack of the bat.

The ball skipped off the glove of the Indians centerfielder, and Barr never stopped running as he scored the winning run in a 4-3 conference win over the Indians.

"I was waving Aaron home all the way," Eagles coach Brian Driskell said after his team improved to 5-2 overall and 1-0 in conference play.

"Then, when the ball got away from their centerfielder, I felt a lot more comfortable sending him home."

Barr said that when he saw Driskell sending him home, it caught him off guard.

"After Bennett got the hit, I knew I could make it to third," said Barr, who had an infield single in the bottom of the second inning that drove home one run while another scored on an Indians error.

"Then I saw Coach waving me home, and I never stopped between bases. Then, as I rounded third I saw the ball got away from their centerfielder and I knew I was going to score the game winner.

"It's funny, I've been hitting the ball really well all season - but every time I hit the ball, it's right at a player from the other team. I didn't hit either one of my hits hard today, and I got two hits, an RBI and scored the game winning run. I'll take it - especially since it led to a team victory."

Landon Limbach started for the Eagles, and allowed three runs through three innings. All three runs came off the bat of slugger Grayson Harris, who blasted a home run deep over the right field fence to give the Indians a 3-2 lead in the top of the third inning.

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning, Barr hit a slow roller to shortstop that scored the runner from third base. The runner from second scored when the ball got away from the Indians infielder.

"It was great to see Aaron play a big role in this game," Driskell added. "Sometimes, where you hit it is more important than how hard you hit it. Aaron and I had a talk before today's game and he told me he was frustrated at the plate. Maybe today will get him going."

The Eagles tied the game 3-3 in the bottom of the sixth when John Malicoat tripled and Bryce Meyer hit a sacrifice fly to deep centerfield.

Chris Meredith starred in middle relief for Grain Valley, allowing just one hit and no runs, along with five strikeouts, in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.

"All three pitchers got the job done tonight," the coach said. "Landon just gave up the one big hit, Chris did a great job for three innings of scoreless relief and Carter Gooch had a 1-2-3 seventh inning."

Weikel has been a tough-luck starter for the 1-8, 0-1 Indians this season. Last week he lost 3-0 at Blue Springs South.

"I was doing my best to keep my pitch count down and pitch to contact," Weikel said. "We had that 3-2 lead and let the game get away us. I know I could have pitched better but at least I kept the game close."

Fort Osage coach Todd Bissell praised his starter, who came within an out of pitching a complete game.

"We got 6 2/3 innings of solid pitching from Weikel," Bissell said. "We just need to provide more offense - when Weikel, or any of our guys, are pitching. We got that big home run from Grayson, but didn't much offense the the rest of the game."