Southern Boone baseball reflects on historic season, first state title

ASHLAND, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Southern Boone Eagles baseball team had a historic 2022 season with an 8-3 win over Logan-Rogersville in the Class 4 State Championship game. 

This is the first time in program history that the baseball title has been in Ashland and breaks the 20 year brought for state titles at the school.

The Eagles are led by head coach Brian Ash who came to Southern Boone in 2019.

Ahead of the 2022 season, Ash felt like his team was being slept on. "We weren't in the pre-season rankings. There was really not a lot of talk and then when we get back from Oklahoma I felt like people are kind of zeroing in on us and we were seeing some of the better arms from every team," Ash said.

Southern Boone ended the season with a record of 34-2. Their only losses came to Class 3 state champion Father Tolton and Oklahoma’s Class 5 runner-up.

"Last year we were looking about what was in front of us and how we were going to beat Blair Oaks and this year we were just focused on the game that we were playing," said sophomore infielder Chase Morris.

Ash became the first coach in Missouri High School baseball history to win state titles at three different schools including Southern Boone, Blair Oaks and Jefferson City.

"There's a lot of things to learn from him. He knows about everything there is to know about baseball," said junior pitcher Carter Salter.

Southern Boone will be graduating 23 wins off the mound but Coach Ash says the training for next season has already begun.