Dragons capture first district title in seven years

By Jacob Meikel

Mid-Buchanan baseball, with no senior players, conquered Thursday’s Class 3 District 16 championship with little to no jitters.

The Dragons continued its domination of the tournament field, defeating Lathrop 9-0 to capture the program’s first district title since 2017.

It took the Dragons the first inning to get their feet under them before being able to put runs on the scoreboard. The second inning opened the scoring up when Nolan McGarry hit a line drive to the Mules’ second baseman that was too hot to handle for a force out at first, scoring two runs and putting Mid-Buchanan ahead 2-0. The Dragons would add one more run in the inning before going scoreless in the third and fourth innings.

In the fifth inning, the Dragons would add to their lead while still keeping Lathrop scoreless. Junior Brayson Weston would bring two runs in on a single to left field, increasing the Mid-Buchanan lead to 5-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning. The onslaught would continue with four more runs appearing on the scoreboard for Mid-Buch in the fifth inning.

The Dragons had the opportunity to end the game in six innings. While holding a 9-0 lead in the sixth and runners on first and second, a single was hit to the outfield, but junior Coltyn Angst slipped while rounding third base as he was trying to score the game’s winning run to run rule the Mules and capture the district title early.

Mid-Buchanan will move on to the sectional round of the Class 3 state tournament, where they will host KCI foe Lawson on Tuesday for a chance to move to the quarterfinal round.