Missouri Military Academy hadn’t won a baseball game in two years.

MMA hosted its third MMA General Geraci Baseball Classic on Saturday and defeated Van-Far 11-1 in five innings in the final game of the Classic. It was the Colonels’ third victory this season — defeating Madison 5-1 and Louisiana 6-5 earlier this year — and first win in the Classic.

Head coach Robert Rosenbaum took over as head coach last season and has noticed improvement within the program this year. Rosenbaum said MMA (3-6) has about 30 kids out for baseball after finishing last season with about 12 kids. 

“As a whole, I feel really good about our team this year,” Rosenbaum said. “We’re young and building for the future. The kids came this year, and they are all excited about it.”

Rosenbaum calls MMA’s pitching and catching “the secret” to its success. Beckett Sears pitched five innings with 10 strikeouts, three hits and one unearned run against Van-Far (0-8) while going 2-for-2 with two doubles at the plate. He went all seven innings against Madison with 15 strikeouts, three hits, one run and one walk, and he then pitched five innings against Louisiana with six strikeouts, two walks, one hit and one unearned run.

The pitching has been around the plate, Rosenbaum said. He said state wrestling medalist Mason Quarles has solidified the catcher position and only had two passed balls on Saturday. Sears provides the team with a good backstop option as well, and he said that is so important to a baseball team.

“Catching controls the game,” Rosenbaum said. “Last year, we had a pretty good catcher that left in the middle of the season. We get that a lot here with kids coming in and going out. When you struggle behind the plate, that’s what sets the tempo.”

The infield defense has been solid, but Rosenbaum said he would like the outfield defense to be better. That is mainly because they are young and inexperienced out there, and that showed in the 20-2 loss to Paris (3-5) on Saturday as Rosenbaum said the first inning snowballed into eight runs.

Paris finished with 13 hits against MMA. Luke Ensor led by going 2-for-2 with five RBIs and one double, Chase Kendrick had four RBIs, and Kaden Lehenbauer, Scotty McGee and Chase Graupman each had two RBIs.

At the plate, MMA has been improved after averaging below two runs per game in each of the past two years. Tegan Compton went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and one double against Van-Far, and Clayton Reich was 2-for-3 with one RBI, one triple and one double. Rosenbaum said the Colonels have scored in the first inning over a four-game span and have held leads.

“We’ve hit the ball all year long,” Rosenbaum said. “It hasn’t always been for a hit, but we’re at least putting it in play and giving ourselves a chance to get baserunners and score runs.”

Rosenbaum said it has been a fun season so far and now the goal is a win in the district tournament.