By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
WESTON - Cade Bradford wasn't too happy with the way he had been hitting the baseball in practice in recent days.
So, he took 300 swings on Sunday to get himself ready for Monday's Class 2 District 15 semifinal against West Platte.
The 300th time's a charm, apparently.
Bradford went 3-for-3 at the plate with two doubles, an RBI and a run scored as No. 1 seed Mid-Buchanan (14-5) defeated No. 4 seed West Platte 5-1 in Weston on Monday afternoon.
"During practice the last few days when we had hitting days, I hadn't hit the ball very well at all," said Bradford. "I kind of lost confidence. Even today, I hit off the tee a little bit, and yesterday, I took 300 swings and it got my confidence back a little bit, and it just carried over to the game."
It apparently carried over to the pitching mound as well, as Bradford made the start and allowed only one run while not issuing a single walk or hitting any batters. He also struck out three.
The Bluejays (10-12) managed seven hits, but the Dragons committed only one error in the field. West Platte also stranded eight base runners.
"They were hitting the ball hard and putting the ball in play," Bradford pointed out. "It's just that our defense came out to play and did their job."
Mid-Buchanan had been idle for a week entering Monday's game, while West Platte had to play their way into Monday's semifinal with a 7-4 win over Wellington-Napoleon on Saturday.
Dragons' coach Rod Elms was a little worried that his guys might be shaky having not played for a week, but his team rose to the occasion.
"All-in-all, we hit the ball alright with timely hitting," Elms said. "We had only what, one error? Also, great pitching. Just proud of how they just battled and played good, clean baseball."
The Dragons got on the board first in the bottom of the second. Sophomore Denton Biller reached second on a fielding error, stole third and was able to score after a balk by West Platte pitcher Wyatt Smith.
The Jays tied the game in the top of the third with an RBI single from Dublin Carnahan, but Mid-Buchanan scored two runs on three straight hits to take a 3-1 lead entering the fourth.
The Dragons tacked on an insurance run in both the fourth and sixth innings.
West Platte managed to get bases loaded in the top of the seventh, but junior Caiden Bailey struck out two batters to cap off the victory.
Sophomore Derek Sprague and senior Javan Noyes both singled and scored in the victory for Mid-Buchanan, who will now face East Buchanan in the district championship on Wednesday at 5 p.m.
The Bulldogs beat Plattsburg Monday night, 5-1.
"I got seven seniors who want this title," Elms said. "We'll see what happens. Two good teams. Hopefully, we'll play well against either one of them, because they're both good teams."
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