Takeaways from Boone County teams and Mizzou commits from the 2024 Columbia Tournament

The Columbia Tournament concluded Saturday with Ft. Zumwalt West defeating Francis Howell 3-1 in the championship game in a matchup of Class 6’s No. 1 and No. 2 teams.

For three days, some of the best high school baseball players and teams in the state faced off against each other. This included four Boone County teams participating this year: Battle, Hickman, Rock Bridge and Southern Boone.

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The Bruins and Eagles advanced to the championship bracket, and there is plenty to observe about the local teams that participated.

Here are four takeaways:

Rock Bridge’s offense shines throughout tournament play, leading to a third place finish

In the first inning in the third place game between Rock Bridge and Southern Boone, junior catcher Crew Nordon launched a two-run homer into left field, putting the Bruins up 2-0 over the Eagles.

“I was in a plus count,” Nordon said. ''So I told myself you know, I knew my one spot and if he didn’t throw it there I was going to take into the next pitch, but he put it there so I took a big hack and made sure I was on time and got over the wall, so that was good.”

That would only be the beginning for Rock Bridge (18-5). The Bruins proceeded to pour on seven more runs in the second inning behind a junior William Kimes sacrifice fly, a two-run RBI single by senior Andrew Hill and a triple by junior Cooper Siebuhr. Senior Cullen Snow and Hill also stole home as well in the stanza.

“The special thing about our offense is even if our swings aren’t the best that day, we can always find a way to manufacture runs whether that's bunting, stealing all that type of stuff,” Nordon said. “We’re always finding ways to put pressure on defenses and score a bunch of runs.”

Rock Bridge’s offense came alive throughout the duration of the tournament. Outside of a 3-1 loss to Francis Howell in the semifinals, the Bruins averaged 11.5 runs in its other four games, a pleasant surprise for head coach Justin Towe and something he hopes his team keeps building on as the season continues.

“The weather is heating up and you hope your bats heat up,” Towe said. “If that happens, we start building and we want to be playing obviously our best at the end in May. And if our bats can start getting better gradually then you know, I really like chances in the end.”

The Bruins defeated Jefferson City and Truman by scores of 9-2 and 12-1 on Thursday before walking off against Eureka on Friday night. The Bruins sent a clear message saying that they can compete with anybody.

“Sometimes we won’t get as much credit as I feel we deserve just because we don’t have a bunch of you know, highly ranked kids or a bunch of D1 commits,” Nordon said. “I feel like when we get to come out here and face teams like we did this weekend, like Eureka they can see how we perform against them and how it’s not easy to beat us.”

The Bruins, at home, will take on Helias (7-4) on Wednesday at 5:00 p.m.

Southern Boone sends a message as well

A 16-1 loss to Rock Bridge doesn’t overshadow or diminish what Southern Boone (15-7) accomplished this weekend. Class-wise, the Eagles, along with Blair Oaks, were the smallest schools among the 15 teams that participated. Southern Boone head coach Brian Ash, of course, knew the level of competition his team was going to face and wanted to see how well they competed over the three-day stretch.

“I’m not really looking at the wins and losses,” said Ash two days prior to the Columbia Tournament after a 15-0 win over Hallsville. “I’m looking at performance…If we can compete well then we know, hey, guys, we got something really special like if we lock it in and do the right things we’re only holding ourselves back from as far as we can go.”

Something special did indeed develop over a span of three days for Southern Boone.

The Eagles defeated Grain Valley and Smith-Cotton by scores of 12-11 and 6-3 on Thursday. In its Friday matchup with Christian Brothers College, Ryker Zimmerman collected a walk-off hit in a 3-2 victory.

Southern Boone led Ft. Zumwalt West by as much as two runs in the semifinal round. The teams battled into extra innings before the Jaguars added four runs in the ninth inning.

“If you had told me that you were up a run and only needed two outs to close it out I would take it in a heartbeat,” Ash said. “The No 1 team in the state of Missouri in Class 6, we had them beat..they battled back.”

The Eagles still didn’t give up as they proceeded to add on two more runs in the bottom of the ninth in a close 8-6 loss.

“I feel like our kids are just never out of a fight,” Ash said. “We’ve been down many times this year and we’re able to scratch, figure it out and scratch and claw and figure out how to score runs and get the job done.”

The Eagles are back in action at home on Monday against Russellville (15-5) at 5 p.m.

Battle and Hickman bounce back, ending streaks along the way

It was a rough first two days for Boone County’s other two squads, Battle (4-13) and Hickman (7-10), but new opportunities presented themselves in the final day of tournament play.

Hickman suffered an 11-1 loss to Francis Howell on Thursday. The Kewpies were tied at five in their second game against Blair Oaks on Friday, but the Falcons, Class 4’s No. 2 team, collected six straight runs to close out the game. Shortly thereafter, Hickman fell 3-0 to Willard.

The Kewpies took their frustrations out against fellow CMAC foes Jefferson City and Smith-Cotton by scores of 10-2 and 13-12, ending a five-game losing streak dating back to Mar. 27.

Battle, on the other hand suffered losses to Ft. Zumwalt West and Staley by a combined score of 28-1. The Spartans bounced back on Saturday to defeat Grain Valley 9-2 before losing to Eureka 13-0. Battle’s win over the Eagles ended a losing streak dating back to Mar. 28.

“We had Brady Crites against Grain Valley. He’s a sophomore,” Battle head coach Bobby Baker said. “He did great, just allowed two runs over I believe it was five innings and kept us in the game, kept it close. And then towards the end, our offense kind of picked it up.”

Both teams are back in action on Wednesday. Battle will travel to face Fulton (8-4) at 5:30 p.m. Hickman will face off against Gateway Legacy Christian Academy (1-1) at home at 5 p.m.

How did Mizzou’s commits fare?

Mizzou had a few future stars shine over the weekend.

Eureka’s Brady Picarelli, a class of 2024 commit, homered against Rock Bridge, while Francis Howell’s Leo Humber, class of 2025, engineered a sacrifice fly against the Bruins.

The most impressive performance between the Missouri commits came from Fort Zumwalt West’s Nolan Sissom.

A class of 2026 commit, Sissom collected 5 RBIs against Southern Boone while going 3-for-4 at the plate. He also collected an RBI in the championship game against Francis Howell.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Local takeaways from the high school baseball 2024 Columbia Tournament