Hope that Webb City would advance to the final four in baseball vanished Saturday as the Cardinals lost at Platte County to the 25-8 Pirates in the Class 5 quarterfinal round.

The 19-16 Cardinals fell behind 10-0 early but battled back as they have often this season. They narrowed the run difference to three runs (10-7) before the Pirates added another run to win 11-7.

In addition to eight seniors, Coach Flave Darnell is also leaving the team – but not Webb City.

Darnell has coached 22 years and won over 300 games for Webb City and Carl Junction. He’s also leaving the classroom as a social science teacher, but he’ll be back as an assistant principal at Webb City High School next year.