PLATTE CITY – Taking on some early season competition against larger schools can be tough and for the Platte County baseball team (8-8), that resulted in seeing only three wins through 11 games.
Platte County junior Dayton Doll makes a play in the second inning of the Pirates’ 5-2 win over Lee’s Summit North on April 10.
Since then, Platte County learned some lessons from six losses of two runs or less and has turned over a new leaf. The Pirates have bested their previous five opponents to fight their way back to .500.
Before this winning streak, Platte County took on five Class 6 teams from Missouri and four opponents from out-of-state – coming up short against every foe that doesn’t reside in the Show Me State. In that time frame, the Pirates took on two fellow Class 5 schools, Kearney (13-6) and Smithville (6-9), and split those games.
Platte County ended March with a trip to Stillwater, OK, and lost all three games. Since returning home, nobody has been able to beat the Pirates and they have won by a run margin of 46 to eight.
That stretch started with back-to-back wins when scoring 15 runs and only giving up a combined four runs. Those wins were against Raytown (4-5) and William Chrisman (5-8).
The last three times Platte County has taken the field it has been at home where they have a 5-0 record at this season and a 28-6 record there since 2022.
The pitching tandem of Isaiah Smith, Brennan McLaughlin and Brayden Carter shut out Grain Valley (9-6) 4-0 on April 5. Rocco Marriott and Tyler Stearns went 2-for-3 and Brian Chandler scratched off an RBI triple.
Entering the matchup with Lee’s Summit West (11-6) without a win in the series dating back to 2006, Platte County ended the drought on April 8. McLaughlin rattled off three hits and two RBIs to lead the way in the 7-2 win.
The Pirates kept the hot streak going against Lee’s Summit North (8-9) with a 5-2 victory on April 10. Stearns set the tone with an RBI single for the sole run in the bottom of the first inning and added to that with another single with two runners on and no outs in the second inning.
Liam Blacklock singled on a line drive to right field and found his way around the bases and across home plate thanks to a sacrifice fly by Taylor Stambersky. Platte County sat on the 4-0 lead for two more innings until Lee’s Summit North scored two runs in the top of the fifth inning.
Devin Wassman tripled in the bottom of the fifth inning and a sacrifice fly by McLaughlin sent him home. The Pirates’ defense held off the Broncos as Smith walked away with two strikeouts and the win; McLaughlin struck out four batters as the reliever.