Higbee Tigers end season with loss at districts

The Higbee Tigers played in their district tournament last week. Originally to be hosted by Sturgeon, the games had to be moved to the Howard Hils Complex in Moberly due to wet fields. Higbee faced number 2 seed Glasgow in their semifinal game and won by a final of 4-0.

Higbee pitched their ace Travis Holtzclaw in the game who didn’t surrender a hit in his seven innings of work and only walked 3 in his no-hit bid while striking out 16 batters.

Higbee scored 2 in the first inning and added 1 run in the second and plated another in the fourth inning. Mitchell Stewart had 3 singles and an RBI, Craig DeJonge had a double and 2 RBI’s and Travis Holtzclaw, Mateo Davis and Gus Points all collected 2 hits in the game.

The district championship game was a bit rougher for the Tigers. With starting pitcher Arthur Fuller out with a foot injury, Higbee struggled to find pitching to face Sturgeon’s potent lineup. Sturgeon took advantage of 5 first inning walks and struck for 8 runs in the first inning. Sturgeon would score 3 more in the third and 4 more in the fourth to take the win 15-0.

Donnie Fuller, Travis Holtzclaw and Tyler Tucker combined in the game for 4 innings of work, giving up 15 runs on 7 hits with 7 walks and 5 strike outs. Tory Hicks pitched 4 innings for Sturgeon giving up 1 hit 1 walk and struck out 10.

Higbee Head Coach Chris Sander commented on the final game of the season. “We were really worn down from a tough first game and with Arthur Fuller injured we were struggling for pitching. Give Sturgeon credit they took advantage of 5 walks in the first inning and did a good job of scoring runs and keeping the pedal on the gas the whole game. Overall we had a great season and it was a pleasure coaching this team.”