The Mansfield Lions made a playoff run Doug Jones would be proud of.
Mansfield (21-2) capped off an inspired 2017 season by beating Canton 16-3 for the Missouri Class 2 state championship last Wednesday at CarShield Field in O’Fallon. Mansfield clinched the Class 2 state championship after losing Jones, its longtime coach, to cancer on Jan. 25.
First baseman Spencer Greene went 2-for-3 at the plate with a walk and five RBI in the state final. He also pitched a perfect fifth and final inning for the Lions.
Devin Kingery and Crayton Henry each batted in three runs for Mansf ield in the state championship romp over Canton.
Short – stop Jonah William – son, the hero of the team’s play off semifinal win over Lincoln , was 3-for- 4 with one RBI and three runs scored Wednesday.
Williamson pitched a complete game three-hitter in a 9-1 semifinal win over Lincoln in which he also had three hits and drove in two runs.
Gary Greene and Mansfield superintendent Nate Moore stepped in to coach the Lions this spring.
“He set these guys down last year and told them ‘I didn’t get the news I was looking for from the doctor, but whatever happens, it is all going to be okay and we are just going to keep right on steppin’,” Greene told the Ozarks Sports Zone.
Jones coached a state record 741 victories in his career and was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2016. Jones, 60, suffered from a rare form of brain cancer for the final year of his life.
His Mansfield Lions teams reached the state semifinals six times (1990, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996 and 2005) and won back-toback state championships in 1995 and 1996.
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