Cardinals win district, get to stay home for best-of-three quarterfinal

The Cardinals advanced to the Class 5 state tournament by defeating Carl Junction 8-3 on Saturday. Rather than go back to Raytown South to finish the Class 5 District 7 tournament, Missouri Southern State University was picked as a neutral site to make it easier for fans of both teams to attend the game.

Carl Junction took a 2-0 first-inning lead on four hits.

The Cardinals scored their first run in the top of the third inning on Brody Eggleston’s RBI single. Then they tied it in the fifth, again on an Eggleston single.

They took the lead (3-2) in the top of the sixth when Cohen Epler led off with a triple to deep left field and scored on Andrew Young’s single.

Meanwhile, after giving up the Bulldogs’ initial two runs, Cardinal pitcher Luke Beverlin shut out the Bulldogs through the rest of five innings. He gave up a lead-off double in the sixth inning and was relieved by Tate Lewis. The Bulldogs scored one run before Lewis got out of the inning.

Beverlin got on base with a single to start the Cardinals’ big five-run seventh inning. After advancing on Eggleston’s bunt and Epler’s single, he scored on Braden Strickland’s single.

Andrew Young, Mason Williams and Brock Renfro singled as the Cardinals scored four more runs.

Lewis got a ground-out and two strickouts to keep the Bulldogs from scoring again.

Webb City got to the district final by defeating McDonald County 11-1 and coming from behind in the bottom of the seventh to defeat Belton 3-2. Landon Fletcher pitched a four-hit complete game against Belton.

Webb City has been the district champ four times in a row, going back to 2022. That season ended with a 11-7 quarterfinal loss to Platte County.

The 2023 Cardinals made it to the final four by defeating Kearney 3-2 in the quarterfinals. They lost 4-0 to St. Francis Borgia in the semifinals and settled for fourth place with a 4-3 loss to Ft. Zumwalt South.

A year ago, the top-two district seeding was reversed, with Webb City No. 1 and Carl Junction No. 2. The Cardinals won the final 3-2. Then they lost 5-0 at Kearney in the quarterfinals.

Thanks to Zachary Dobbs and Tim Workman at  www.webbcitycardinals.com for sharing their video coverage and stats.