Oran will face Sturgeon in Class 1 semifinals

Oran baseball coach Mitch Wood has mixed emotions about his team as it prepares to open play at the final four on Monday.

The players' antics cause him to lose sleep, but he thinks their attitude might be right to bring home a state title.

"I've never said this, but I really feel good about this bunch," Wood said. "They really have got that right, goofy mixture of being able to do things. I don't know. It wears me out -- sleepless nights -- I'm here to tell you, more than usual, but they're just a little off kilter. I'm not sure what it is. There's something there."

The Eagles are 20-5 this season. After needing nine innings to beat Oak Ridge 6-5 for a district title, they mostly cruised to a 5-1 victory over Cooter in the sectional round and a 9-1 win over Naylor in a state quarterfinal.

"The really good is that they really are laid back," Wood said. "They're really not aware of what's going on. They've really taken it to heart when I tell them we've got to win every inning. They seem to put the other inning behind them and start the new inning. To that extent, I've always been a fiery, 'let's get after it' guy, and that's where I lose the sleep because they're not.

Oran, which is appearing in a third consecutive final four, will face Sturgeon at 3 p.m. at T.R. Hughes Ballpark in O'Fallon, Mo. The Eagles defeated Sturgeon 9-4 to claim third place last season behind a complete-game performance from Seth Ressel.

Wood has started Ressel, now a junior, and senior Kody Moore throughout the playoffs. Ressel will get the nod if Wood sticks to the pattern he's used up to this point.

"Honestly, we've tossed it back and forth both ways, and we haven't got enough scouting reports on the other teams yet," Wood said. "Right now we're leaning that way just because that's the way we've been doing, but if it shows that one teams hits fastballs, offspeed better than the other, we're probably going to look at something different."

Ressel is 9-2 this season. Through the completion of district play he had a 1.78 ERA and was batting .416 with 12 RBIs from the leadoff spot. Moore is 5-2 and had a 1.82 ERA through district play while batting .362 wit 27 RBIs. Senior catcher Alex Heuring leads Oran with a .452 average to go along with 26 RBIs.

Santa Fe, the team that defeated Oran in the semifinals a year ago, will face Dadeville in the other semifinal.

"We know that we can beat them," Moore said of the semifinal matchup. "Sturgeon, they're obviously a good team because if you've made it this far, you're not going to be bad, but we beat them last year. We know we can beat them again."

Moore said in the past that he felt the team was uptight in it's semifinal losses the past two seasons, something he hopes will not be the case this season since every likely starter has final four experience.

"I'm real confident that we'll be able to relax this year, and I think we'll come out and play a lot better first game than we have the past two years just because we've got a lot more experience," Moore said.