Baier frustrated after South baseball falls in title game

Some coaches, even when their team is winning more than they're losing, can still tell when and why things aren’t going as well as they may seem and won't hide behind those problems.

Blue Springs South baseball coach Ben Baier is one of those coaches right now.

A 3-2 loss to Truman Thursday in the championship game of the Eastern Jackson County Tournament at Legacy Park brought his frustrations to a head, despite a spotless 3-0 record prior to the title game.

Blue Springs South's Colton Pogue flags down a throw from catcher Nate Goff
trying to catch a Truman base stealer in the seventh inning of Thursday's title
game at the Eastern Jackson County Tournament. Truman won 3-2.

“I’m not happy with how we played the entire tournament. We were solid at times,” Baier said. “You can’t be a championship level team and not play solid all the time.”

The Jaguars grabbed a 2-0 lead early in the game before the Patriots scratched their way back into the game to tie things up at 2-all.

In the bottom of the seventh a leadoff walk and a stolen base by Truman set the table for a walk-off double.

“You can’t walk the leadoff hitter,” Baier said. “We didn’t hit our spots and we left the ball out over the plate. … We didn’t run the bases well at all, again, and this stuff has been a common theme.

“We preach these things and they can pay attention to them or not, but if not this is the result.”

South’s pitching wasn’t all that bad during the tournament, but Baier is looking for more consistency.

His frustrations weren’t limited to the mound or the base paths, though, as he pointed to the teams approach at the plate. In particular, they finished with nine fly ball outs to just three for the Patriots.

“If you hit a bunch of fly balls a freshmen team can beat you,” Baier said. “Anyone can catch a fly ball. We’re not changing our approach; we’re not doing it during an at-bat like we need to. Until we get it out of our minds to try and lift the ball for a home run we’re going to have the same result.”

There’s still plenty of time for South to fix the problems Baier is talking about, not to mention there has been plenty of good things in the teams 11-3 start, even if that wasn’t what was on his mind after the loss.

The Jaguars will look to get back in the win column when they host Lee’s Summit Monday.

“It’s all about performance,” Baier said. “You can’t talk about doing things; you have to do it. You have to bring your focus. We have to ask ourselves what we want to get out of this season.”