By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
OZARK - Mid-Buchanan drew eight walks and swiped seven bases to go with their five hits.
That, combined with five innings from starting pitcher Will Archer, was enough to lift the Dragons (22-8) to a 7-3 win over West County in Class 3 state semifinals in Ozark on Wednesday afternoon.
Mid-Buchanan, already in its first Final Four ever in baseball, now advances to its first state championship game in program history.
The Dragons got up 1-0 after the first inning, 2-0 after the second and then led 3-0 heading to the bottom of the fifth.
West County (22-7) pushed across two runs to make it a 3-2 game headed to the sixth.
Mid-Buchanan essentially slammed the door with two insurance runs in the sixth and two more in the seventh.
Starting pitcher Will Archer went five innings for Mid-Buch, striking out three. Mason Grace tossed 1.1 innings of relief, while Cadyn Parrott recorded the final two outs.
Archer also went 2-for-4 at the plate with a run scored and two RBIs. One of his hits was a triple. Coltyn Angst drove in a pair of runs on a groundout and a sac fly.
Quentin Burton drove in two runs on an RBI single in the sixth inning.
Mid-Buchanan will play Duchesne (24-10) in the Class 3 state championship on Thursday night at 7 p.m.
The game will be on KFEQ Radio (680, 95.3, 680kfeq.com, KFEQ app) with coverage starting at 6:30 p.m.
Full audio broadcast
Will Archer interview
Rob Davenport interview
You can follow Tommy on Twitter @TommyKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.