Assistant coach Jon Genoways found his son, Sam, after the last huddle of the spring and gave him hug.
His face red from trying to hold back tears, the senior Fort Calhoun High School baseball player embraced his big brother next. Next school year, he'll follow in Joe's footsteps and play at Morningside University.
The Genoways have shared a lot of dugouts together over the years and, on Tuesday, they shared a moment at the end of a record-breaking Pioneers season. FCHS lost its NSAA Class C State Championships elimination game to Lincoln Christian, 11-1, but closes the campaign with a program-best 18-8 overall record.
Calhoun was 1-2 with a first-round win over the Crusaders during its first-ever state tournament, but it also suffered through a gloomy, season-ending loss to the team from the state capitol.
“It seemed like it was not our day,” Pioneers coach Roy Prauner said after his team’s elimination at Fricke Field in Papillion. “But I don’t think that score or that game diminishes anything that we did the entire season.”
The baseball program, after all, hadn't ever posted a winning record before this spring.
“We put a frickin lofty goal on them from the get-go,” the coach said. “We put lofty goals on them all year, and they kept answering and kept fighting and kept doing everything we asked.”
Down 3-0 after three innings Tuesday, FCHS produced its lone run against Lincoln Christian during the top of the fourth frame. Senior Kenny Wellwood plated Presley Olberding with a single, but a base running miscue cut the Pioneers' rally short.
The Crusaders responded with a double and a deep fly by Grant DeHaan into centerfield. The ball glanced off of Eric Koterba's glove and to the Fricke Field turfe as the Lincoln Christian slugger raced all the way around the bases for a 5-1 lead.
“Maybe today there wasn't enough left in the tank,” Prauner said.
As FCHS' uncharacteristic errors mounted, the Crusaders — who were 2-1 against Calhoun this season — took advantage with six more runs during the sixth inning. A two-run base hit ended the game by run-rule.
Wellwood, Genoways, Olberding and Koterba had hits against the Crusaders, and Charlie Boumstein and Eli Tinkham walked, but it wasn't near enough to push the Pioneers onto the Class C semifinals. Fort Calhoun lost, but not before putting together the best baseball season in school history — by far.
“What a great group of young men that just bonded, came together and did everything we asked,” Coach Prauner said. “They grew as a team.”
Kernels outscore FCHS
The Pioneers were forced into Tuesday's elimination game Monday at Tal Anderson Field in Omaha.
Top-seeded Central City/Centura bested FCHS during Class C's second round, 9-6. Coach Prauner's team trailed 6-1 through three innings, but brought the potential game-tying run to the plate during the seventh frame.
“I just think we left a little bit of meat on the bone, you know?” the coach said. “It was a game that I think we could have possibly won, but just didn't quite have it in certain parts of the game. But, for the most part, we were there.”
Both teams had nine hits, but the Kernels, ultimately, had more runs.
“We definitely belong here,” Prauner said in defeat.
FCHS answered Central City's first run during the bottom of the second inning with one of its own in the top of the third. Chase Bierman produced a one-out single, stole second base and scored when Genoways hit into an error.
Tied 1-1, though, the Kernels struck. Mason Gorecki hit a two-run homer over the left field wall as the home team on the scoreboard totaled five runs during the bottom of the third inning. The five-run lead didn't last long, however.
The Pioneers' Chase Premer, a catcher, doubled to lead off the next half inning before both Boumstein and Olberding plated runs. Boumstein hit a double down the left field line, while his teammate batted a single through the infield to pull Calhoun within 6-3.
Central City added a run during the bottom half of the fourth frame, too, but Coach Prauner's team answered again. This time, the Pioneers scored three runs to pull within 7-6.
Wellwood first reached base during the underdogs' three-run inning when he was hit by a pitch. Genoways hit next, doubling down the left field line to score his teammate.
Premer's triple to right field cut the Pioneers' deficit further before his courtesy runner, Rocco Ruma, scored on a wild pitch past the Kernals' catcher.
“We've kind of waited all year for guys to have big hits and have big hits back-to-back,” Prauner said, noting how Fort Calhoun picked the perfect time to string some swings together.
Central City, however, showed resolve, too, during the bottom of the fifth frame. With its lead evaporating, the state tournament's top seed hit a two-run RBI single into shallow left-centerfield for a three-run advantage. Koterba sacrificed his body diving for the ball, but couldn't quite get to it.
The 9-6 score held even as FCHS earned three base runners across the last two innings. Koterba singled in the sixth before Wellwood and Alex Christensen reached in the seventh ahead of the final out.
“I love the kids' fight,” Prauner said. “They battled.”
It just wasn't enough, sending the Pioneers' into a win-or-go-home situation Tuesday at Fricke Field. They'd ultimately have to go home.
NSAA CLASS B STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Tuesday
No. 4 Lincoln Christian 11, No. 5 Fort Calhoun 1, 5 inn.
FCHS (18-8) 0 0 0 1 0 — 1 4 4
LC (15-6) 0 0 3 2 6 — 11 11 0
Monday
No. 1 Central City/Centura 9, No. 5 Fort Calhoun 6
FCHS (18-7) 0 0 1 2 3 0 0 — 6 9 1
CCC (23-1) 0 1 5 1 2 0 0 — 9 9 4
