Portageville BB has prepared for this postseason moment

Portageville High School junior catcher Jayquan Bogan throws back to the pitcher in a game earlier this season against East Prairie at the Malden Invitational.

Dennis Marshall ~ Standard-Democrat

The Portageville High School baseball squad enters postseason play today, and there are a lot of high expectations for the Bulldogs over the next few weeks.

Portageville has advanced to the MSHSAA State Finals in each of the past two seasons, once in Class 2 (a runner-up finish in 2022) and once in Class 3 (a third-place finish in 2023).

“Our whole preparation was for what we are trying to embark on here at the end of the year,” veteran Bulldog coach Tyler Trover said.

Portageville (26-7) will face Campbell (11-9) at 1 p.m. in the semifinal round of the MSHSAA Class 2 District 1 Tournament.

Thursday’s C2D1 games were to be played at Senath-Hornersville but were moved to Bernie due to rain-soaked fields in Senath. If that is the case again today, the two semifinals (Bernie vs. Senath-Hornersville at 1 p.m. being the other game) will be played at Bernie.

The Bulldogs have dropped seven games this spring, which is the same number as those two Final Four teams had combined, and Trover has accepted that and isn’t shocked by it.

“The biggest thing that we identified was that we needed a tougher schedule,” Trover said. “We played a tough schedule last year, but we set it up where our number one (pitcher) went in every single one of those big games.

“By the time we got to the Final Four, we were 34-2 and the pressure of that situation, maybe we didn’t handle it as well as we could have.”

Of those seven losses this season, the Bulldogs fell to Class 3 No. 4-ranked Licking (6-3), Class 3 No. 2-ranked Scott City (7-4 and 11-7), Class 3 No. 1-ranked Valle Catholic (11-8), Class 6 No. 10-ranked Jackson (11-1), as well as Notre Dame (a 14-win team) and Central (Park Hills) (a 13-win team).

“We needed to toughen our schedule up exponentially,” Trover continued, “and we feel like we have done that.

“We’ve taken some losses where we had some guys in positions that they (normally) aren’t going to be in, just to finish. We’ve had some situations where we have played some pretty good baseball, but still got beat because it just wasn’t our day, and we were playing a really good team.”

Portageville has played “12 to 15 ranked teams,” according to Trover, and he has been pleased with this season.

“We’ve held our own and beaten some state-ranked teams,” Trover said.

Trover mentioned the “pressure” that followed the 2023 team after finishing second the year prior. However, the 2024 group “is a lot looser,” according to Trover.

“The expectation has been to just show up every day,” Trover explained, “and to understand that our schedule is probably going to allow for us to get beat some.

“That was the idea. What kind of adversity can we face throughout the course of the year? Where we have seen everything there is to see. We’ve seen teams that are unforgiving. Really, it’s been a taste of our own medicine. That is what we’ve been a lot.”