WARRENSBURG — A week ago, Warrensburg Mule Club Post 131 returned from the Zone 2 Tournament in Sedalia feeling like it could have accomplished more.
Rather than dwelling on the pain of a runner-up finish, Post 131 turned its focus to a bigger goal in mind.
Mule Club met that objective, winning three straight games to claim the 2024 Missouri American Legion AA State Championship.
“[Last week] motivated us to come back and prove that we deserve to be here, that we had a place here at state, and that we didn’t get a free ride here,” Post 131’s Josh Burnett said. “We came up, we showed up and we proved we deserve to be here.”
Post 131 solidified its top finish with a 6-5 win over Ste. Genevieve Post 150 in extra innings Saturday, July 27, at Crane Stadium.
The championship spanned nine innings, with Mule Club (25-8) outscoring Ste. Genevieve 4-0 in the last three innings to earn the victory.
Post 131 took the go-ahead lead in the top of the ninth through a ground ball hit down the third base line by Cohen Jones to send Eli Anderson home from second.
“Eli isn’t known on the team for having the greatest wheels, but he had good enough to get around there to get that last one scored," Mule Club head coach Matt Morgan said. "It put us in a position where we got the win. We’re state champs. We’re state champs.”
Jones closed the game out on the mound for Mule Club, pitching three shutout innings while allowing two hits and striking out one.
Both hits came in leadoff situations, including a double from Post 150’s (23-5) Justin Schweigert in the bottom of the ninth. What followed were two flyouts to Sam Rosine in center field and one to Kaiden Townsend in right.
“We knew we were in it, we were in it the whole way,” Jones said. “Once I scored that lead run, I knew I really had to go out there and take control of the field and make sure we got the dub.”
Post 131 did not have the lead on its side until it scored the final run.
Mule Club fell behind 3-0 in the first three innings, allowing RBI singles from Evan Viox and Luke Ferranto in the bottom of the second, along with an RBI double from Andrew Schilly in the bottom of the third.
Post 131 added the next two runs, with Maverick Martin scoring on a passed ball in the top of the fifth and Burnett laying down a ground ball to centerfield to bring home Kannon Crookes in the top of the sixth.
The one-run difference grew back to three in the bottom of the sixth with Ste. Genevieve scoring through an RBI single from Viox and the bases loaded walk of Schweigert.
All but one of Post 150’s five runs were unearned. Ste. Genevieve had seven hits while walking three times and striking out once against Post 131’s Carson Droege.
Mule Club went into the seventh inning trailing 5-2.
“We just kept fighting, clawing and found a way to get that score tied up and even bigger than that found a way to get the win in extra innings,” Matt Morgan said. “There was no quit, 100% desire there at the end. They found a way to do it.”
Mule Club’s rally magic began with Droege reaching via a leadoff walk in the top of the seventh.
Following a pitching change and a balk, Charlie Morgan grounded out to second base allowing Droege to advance to third.
Rosine sent the ball into center field in the next at-bat, sending Droege home for an RBI.
Rosine stole second in an at-bat where Oliver Defenbaugh struck out for out No. 2. Had a third out been recorded, Post 131 and Post 150 would have gone into a second game to decide who would be the state champions.
“It was all or nothing [at that point],” Burnett said. “It was go big or go home. We had to win it there. We had to show up.”
The next four at-bats resulted in a single, including one from Anderson, one from Crookes, one from Jones and one from Burnett.
Crookes drove home Rosine to make it a one-run game while Burnett scored Martin, who was pinch-running in place of Anderson, for the game-tying run.
“The dugout’s energy made it possible for all of us,” Burnett said. “They kept us in the game. They kept our heads up, and allowed us to come back.”
Post 150 had a leadoff reach in the bottom of the seventh. Nine of the next 10 at-bats between Mule Club and Ste. Genevieve resulted in outs.
The exception was Rosine reaching through hit by pitch with two outs in the top of the eighth.
Mule Club tallied two reaches in the top of the ninth, beginning with the leadoff walk of Anderson before Jones hit what went down as a game-winning RBI single.
Jones was one of three Mule Club athletes to have numerous hits. He went 2-for-5 alongside Crookes, while Burnett went 3-for-4. Rosine and Anderson were 1-for-4.
“It was good baseball for a championship game,” Jones said. “It was a good one ... [Being a state champion] feels great, it feels electric. It's nothing I've experienced before. It is a great feeling."
Post 131 began the state tournament with a 7-2 win against Jefferson City Post 5 Thursday, July 25. It turned around to beat Ste. Genevieve 5-4 Friday, July 26.
Jefferson City went on to eliminate Sedalia Post 642 in the first elimination game Friday before losing to Ste. Genevieve in the second.
The state title gives Mule Club its first in its two-year affiliation with Matthews-Crawford American Legion Post 131.
The journey first began in early 2022 when Matt Morgan and Mule Club approached the Legion about restarting a program that had not been active since 2019.
Matt Morgan made it a point to include Post 131’s Steve Del Vecchio in celebratory festivities.
“I met him in February before last season, and I told him ‘Steve, I got a group of boys here, you guys need to support us, you guys need to step up and get this Legion program started again,'" Matt Morgan said. "I said ‘if you do it, good things are going to happen with these boys. They are talented, they have the right attitudes, they are smart.'
"It was by far one of my proudest moments of the season to give Steve a hug there and say ‘I told you the team would bring you a state championship.’ They put it together, and they were able to find a way to get it.”
Joe Andrews can be reached at 660-747-8123
