Dragons win first postseason game in 8 years

ST. JOSEPH — The Cameron High School Dragon Baseball Team won its first postseason game since 2013 after staving off the Benton Cardinals 3-2.

After falling 11-3 to the Midland Empire Conference rival Cardinals a week ago, Cameron coach Justin Simpson said his team had no intention of letting last week’s blowout loss go unavenged. 

“We knew we were going to be in a dogfight … I told them ‘Go post Benton’s name on the wall and remember that game because come Friday we need to show them a different version of us,’” Simpson said. “I told them, ‘We need to have a warrior mentality. We might not always know how we’re going to win the game, but we know we’re not going to lose.’ We fought through some adversity today, but when it counted, we got it done. Hats off to those boys.”

With the tying run in scoring position and the winning run at the plate with two outs, Friday’s Class 4 District 16 opener came down to the final at-bat with junior outfielder Tanner Riley snatching away Benton’s victory after catching a line-drive to shallow right field. Riley entered the game after his brother, senior pitcher Ian Riley exited the game after taking a line-drive to the stomach in the sixth inning. Until that point, Riley tallied five strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings pitched and allowing only two hits. Despite taking a ball traveling more than 100 miles-per-hour to the midsection, he managed to throw the batter out at first, but collapsed once the adrenaline wore off. 

READ MORE IN THIS WEEK’S EDITION OF THE CAMERON CITIZEN-OBSERVER, IN STORES THURSDAY.