The Oran baseball team has been to nine previous final four under the direction of coach Mitch Wood. Here is what happened in each of those trips plus a view from then and now from Wood or his players.

1998

Oran fell behind 7-0 in its first final four appearance since 1981 before scoring eight unearned run in an inning and eventually coming from behind to defeat New Bloomfield 9-7. The Eagles fell behind early in the championship as well and could not rally in a 9-3 loss to Halfway. The team stole a state-record 11 bases in the title game but committed three errors that led to five unearned runs.

Then: "All you can say is the better team won. We got some costly mistakes from the other team [Wednesday] to help us get here, so you get some breaks and you give some breaks. We gave some breaks today."

-- Mitch Wood

Now: "We got rained out, so we had to stay an extra day. They made us get up at 9 o'clock that Saturday morning I guess it was and play the championship game. It was about 40-degree weather and drizzling rain, which they had to play in it, too. It wasn't just us. They beat us.

"We kind of started the curse. Like I said, it was just kind of odd that we got rained out and had to stay an extra day and ended up finishing second. And you know the rest of the story -- still yet to win one."

-- Justin McAlister, a senior on the 1998 team

1999

After narrowly defeating Advance ace Garrett Broshuis 2-1 in the district championship, Oran romped to the final four with a pair of run-rule wins over Bernie and Van Buren. But the team got its first taste of heartbreak in the state semifinal when Billy Loper was called out at home trying to score on a wild pitch in the seventh inning of a 4-3 loss to Marion C. Early.

The Eagles rebounded for an 11-1 five-inning win over Northwest in the third-place game, but the last memory is of the call at home plate in the semifinal. Both Wood and Loper said he was safe after the game.

Then: "He was safe. But I've never been beat by an umpire, and we didn't get beat by one today."

-- Mitch Wood

2002

The Eagles outscored opponents 57-9 in the playoffs on their way to the final four, but that powerful offense fell silent in the state semifinal. Oran had just two hits in a 8-4 loss to Marion C. Early. It fell behind 8-0 in the game and didn't score until the seventh inning.

Junior Ryne Wood, Mitch Wood's son, pitched a complete game and had three RBIs in Oran's 7-3 win over Sacred Heart of Sedalia in the third-place game.

Then: "It's disappointing. It's nice, I guess, but third place sucks."

-- Ryne Wood, a junior on the 2002 team

Now: "Am I proud of it? Yes. Do I feel better about not winning? Absolutely not. No. We had a great opportunity and we didn't get it done. I think that's something that all of us -- we're very proud of the fact we had an opportunity to go, and it was a lot of fun."

-- Ryne Wood

2003

Mitch Wood took what he considers to be his most talented team to the final four, where it defeated Concordia 7-3 in a state semifinal. Senior Trey Graviett pitched a five-hit complete game in the semifinal win and followed up a two-run triple in the six inning with a homer in the seventh inning.

A single bad inning and ten stranded baserunners doomed Oran in a 5-2 championship loss to Sparta, which scored four runs on just two hits in one inning. The Eagles outhit Sparta 11-3 in the game.

Then: "Second place sucks, too."

-- Oran senior Ryne Wood

Now: "We were humbled by baseball. You'll probably be able to get this better than I could, but I think we out-hit them like 12-3 or four. I don't think we made an error, and we got beat 5-2. ... We did everything but score more runs in that game."

-- Ryne Wood

2004

In what was supposed to be a rebuilding year after the gradutation of seven starters with storied careers, the Eagles just kept winning anyway. The team was a strike away from the end of its season twice in the quarterfinal round but rallied from four runs down in the seventh inning to beat Thayer 9-8.

Oran beat Bevier 8-2 in the state semifinal and got as closer to a state championship that any Mitch Wood-led team before a while pitch in the seventh inning allowed the go-ahead run to score in a 4-3 loss to Archie.

Then: "We always say, 'Ten runs up or 10 runs down, don't quit. We tried to stay positive. I can't say I'm not surprised, but we did it all year."

-- Mitch Wood, after team's dramatic quarterfinal win

Now: "Matt Seyer threw a splitty, and hit the corner of the plate and bounced off [Joey Williams'] left shoulder and went back to the backstop. The guy scored, championship game, season's over. That was pretty much it.

"But you could ask anybody around there, nobody would have ever thought we would've went to state that year."

-- Paul Bucher, a sophomore on the 2004 team and current assistant coach

2006

Oran committed six errors in a 6-2 state semifinal loss to eventual state champion Sacred Heart. The Eagles, who have yet to finish fourth at a baseball final four, recovered for a 6-4 win over Silex to claim third place.

Sophomore Kody Campbell, who went on to play at Southeast Missouri State, had three hits in the third-place game and went 5 for 8 at the final four.

The Eagles finished the season 26-5 to set a new record for wins in a season.

Then: "We're going to keep taking our chances, and hopefully we'll go up here one day and win No. 1 for Oran."

-- Mitch Wood

Now: "I know in the semifinals we played Sacred Heart, and they had a really good pitcher. We struggled to come up with much offense against him. ... We still had chances to win the game. I think we made a few errors. We had a few plays that didn't go our way, and some things like that. Their guy was good. He pitched well, and he was better than us that day. ...

"On paper I think our team was probably better than Sacred Heart, and if we played them a three-game series, five-game series, whatever, we probably would've beat them. But on that one day they were better than us, and that's how it goes sometimes."

-- Kody Campbell

2008

Mitch Wood watched the 2008 third-place game from some place other than the dugout after he was ejected in the fifth inning of a 7-4 state semifinal loss to Stoutland, a team Oran beat 1-0 on its home field in the regular season, for arguing a batter's inference call.

The Eagles, officially lead by assistant Adam Friga, a former Oran player and now a principal at the school, defeated New Haven 5-2 to win third place behind a complete-game performance by senior Alex Chasteen

Then: "Umpires have never beaten me. They never have. We beat ourselves today, bar none, end of discussion on that one.

"But he was horrible. It was all about him from the very beginning. You couldn't even talk to him or anything. Guys like that don't need to be out here. It's that simple. You come out here for the kids and do some things, and they just don't need to be out here. But he didn't beat us."

Now: "The biggest thing that stands about that one was that fiasco with that home plate umpire we had. I'll never forget that as long as I live. I think in the first two or three innings of the game both head coaches ... were both out of the dugout arguing calls, plays on the field as well as balls and strikes. Then coach Wood ended up getting thrown out. It was just a wild game. We had chances to come back and win that game. We just couldn't get the big hit."

-- Kody Campbell

2011

The Eagles finished off a dramatic comeback to earn another trip to the final four when sophomore Alex Heuring hit a grand slam in the seventh inning to help Oran beat Naylor 14-13 in the quarterfinal round.

Five errors and a failed squeeze contributed to a 6-5 loss to Liberal in the state semifinal before Dalton Elfrink threw a one-hit gem in a 10-0 win over St. Elizabeth in third-place game.

Then: "We didn't get a bunt down, a squeeze. Five errors -- one of them was a pop up that was a two-run after that. What can you say? If you don't play better than that, you're not going to win too many ballgames."

-- Mitch Wood, after state semifinal

Now: "We knew we could've done so much better in that game. We were all disappointed in ourselves, but we still wanted to come out and prove that we were one of the best teams in the state for sure."

-- Zac Chasteen, a senior on the 2011 team

2012

The Eagles second consecutive trip to the final four had the kind of familiarly the team would rather have avoided. They committed five errors in a 3-2 eight-inning loss to Santa Fe in the semifinals.

An Oran player tripped rounding third-base in the sixth inning, which prevented the go-ahead run from scoring. Santa Fe took the lead in the eighth inning on an Oran error with two outs.

The Eagles once again claimed third place, this time with a 9-4 win over Sturgeon.

Then: "The biggest thing was we just relaxed. We were so uptight yesterday. Obviously we wanted to win. We wanted a first place. But that kills us every year. Same thing as last year -- we were uptight, wouldn't relax, and you seen what happened. Last year in the third-place game, we relaxed and won 10-0. We relaxed today and we won 9-4."

Now: "[I remember] losing the first game and thinking that that might have been my last shot at winning a state title. That didn't settle real well."

-- Kody Moore, a junior on the 2012 team

Rachel Crader, semoball.com editor