It was this month that Community R-6 was dominated in its conference championship game.

Community R-6 vs Sacred Heart Photo Gallery

The Trojans were at their lowest then but were at their absolute highest on Wednesday at home as they defeated Sacred Heart 9-4 in the Class 1 state quarterfinals to advance to the program’s second ever state Final Four and first since 2001. Community’s trio of all-conference players led the effort as Gavin Allen and Ayden Meranda each finished with three hits and three RBI, and Mason Carroll struck out 10 in a complete game pitched on the mound.

Head coach Joel Krato said it has taken a season, but the Trojans have fielded the team needed to beat anybody in the state. He said it wasn’t always like that as, for example, when Community was shut down 3-0 at Pilot Grove to lose the Central Activities Conference title. The exchange initiated by his senior leader Allen demonstrated why a different Trojan team has taken the field in their current eight-game winning streak, matching a season-high.

“We lost a conference championship game, and my kids were utterly broken,” Krato said. “I’m driving home, it’s probably 9:30-10 o’clock at night, and Gavin Allen says in the group chat, ‘Coach, we’re sorry we didn’t win you a conference championship, but I promise you we’ll win you a district championship.’ And then all of the kids went, ‘Hey coach. We got you. Don’t worry about it.’ The mutual respect of ‘No I want to do it for you.’ That’s why we’re here.”

Krato said there are many more talented teams out there, especially when you reach the postseason, like Sacred Heart, Northland Christian, Cairo and Higbee. Community was able to beat all of those teams because of its belief and respect for each other.

Community hit a home run in each of the first two innings but then employed some small ball to gain an edge. Mason Rohan laid down a bunt that forced the Gremlins to make a play in front of a packed Laddonia ballpark crowd only for the ball to sail over the first baseman’s head and score a run. Shane Woodson then stepped up to the plate and executed a safety squeeze perfectly to score Lane Carter and make it 4-2 Trojans and inject some energy back into their dugout.

“When I give them a bunt sign, it’s ‘I can’t let my teammates down’ and not ‘Well, I don’t want to do this because it’s stupid,’” Krato said. “They’re having to play in front of however many people are here, and that’s a lot of pressure. We bunted, we bunted and we bunted and we scored a run, and I think that was the turning point. We’ve been working on (the safety squeeze) all year, and that’s the first time we’ve ever done it in my five years here.”

Krato remembers trying the same play the previous round against Northland Christian and botching it, but that was still better than the Trojans 11-1 five-inning victory in late March at Paris. In that victory, Community committed three errors but also made several mistakes, including failing repeatedly to lay down bunts. 

“Try bunting off 95 (mph). That’s what we practice bunting on,” Krato said. “In the game, we bunt off 82. That’s a lot easier than 95.”

In the fifth inning, Allen widened the Community margin to 6-2 after driving in Meranda and continuing to circle the bases when the Gremlins made an errant throw to second base, eventually scoring a Little-League style home run. Allen said scoring early was crucial after Sacred Heart and its No. 1 pitcher Gavin Caldwell defeated Pilot Grove 4-2 in its district title game.

And that’s not the only way Allen creates energy as, whenever he’s in the dugout, Allen can be seen regularly encouraging his teammates to make noise and cheer for whatever Trojan is at the plate. That belief began from the top in Krato.

“Krato at the second practice said, ‘Our goal is to win districts, but why can’t we go to state,’” Allen said. “We put that into our brains, and we just took it from there. The dogpile hurt my head, but I’ll do it 10 times again.”

“In the Van-Far game, I took him out. ‘If you don’t want to hustle, I’ll find someone else,’” Krato said. “Run hard. Don’t jog. Put pressure on them, and that’s what we did.”

Before Community could distance itself, it ran into a sticky situation in the fifth inning as Carroll allowed three hits and Sacred Heart managed to load the bases twice. Carroll induced a double play off the bat from Carter Rice, who was 2-for-2 with a double before that at-bat, but still had traffic before a strikeout left them loaded.

Krato said Carroll had about 25 pitches to start the sixth inning but didn’t need that much to close the door on the offense that has averaged about eight runs per game for four years. 

“I had to find a comfortable spot, started throwing strikes and I settled back in,” Carroll said. “I came out of there (at the end of the game) with four (pitches) left. I felt that we were going to the Final Four in the last inning, and I had 15 pitches left so I had to fill up the strike zone.”

“That was the best offensive team we’ve seen this year. They’re 2-3-4-5 could swing it,” Krato said. “He came to me and said, ‘Coach, we have to stop throwing so many fastballs’ and I go ‘Hey, you’ve only got so many pitches left so we’ve got to throw strikes.’ You talk about a kid that accepted the challenge. I’m pretty sure he threw harder in the seventh inning than he did in the first inning. That goes back to ‘I’m getting this done for my team, and I’m not letting my team down.’”

Meranda added some insurance for the Trojans in the sixth inning when he turned a curveball into a two-RBI single with two outs, making it 8-4. In the second inning, Meranda said he took a hanging slider over the fence for his first spring baseball home run after going deep in the fall season.

Since Meranda broke his hand the day before Community played Higbee in districts, the first team all-conference hitter has struggled at the plate, particularly with hitting offspeed pitching. He said he wouldn’t have been able to turn around his 2-for-11 in three games before Sacred Heart if not for extra work with Krato.

“(Krato) helped me out a lot,” Meranda said. “I saw about 45 curveballs in two days. It’s been hard playing with this hand, but we’ve been doing and we’ve been winning so that’s all that matters.”

Krato said Meranda kept striking out in practice against curveballs, but when it mattered most, he hit a curveball for damage for “the first time in his life.” Meranda’s hand is damaged, but Krato said he wouldn’t tell you that as Meranda said the hand felt better after the quarterfinal win.

“I’ve never even heard him complain about his hand,” Krato said. “He said, ‘Coach, it’s broken, but if I can swing, would you let me play?’ I’m like, ‘Sure, I’ll let you play. You’re a senior. You can make your own decisions. You’ve earned the spot to be out there with a broken hand.’”

Class 1 No. 5 South Nodaway (19-2) defeated Green City 5-4 on Wednesday to become Community’s next opponent in the second Class 1 semifinal game at 1 p.m. Monday at Sky Bacon Stadium in Ozark. No. 1 Cooter (24-6) and No. 2 and defending state champion St. Elizabeth (21-7) are the other semifinalists.

Krato said it has been uncharted territory for the Trojans since winning districts but believes it can go even further and win its first championship — third-place finish in 2001.

“However we played (Wednesday), that’s going to be tough to beat,” Krato said. “Bunts, scoring, making routine plays, throwing strikes, that’s tough to beat. I’ll take my team trying to outexecute over anybody.”