Schuckman: Return of prep all-star game showcases everything great about baseball

HANNIBAL, Mo. — It started with a selfie and ended with a shower.

Everything happening in between helped ensure Saturday night’s eighth installment of the Missouri vs. Illinois All-Star Game — the first since 2019 — became a full-tilt celebration of high school baseball.

From bunts to bad hops, knee-bending curveballs to wild throws, and seeing-eye singles to smoked liners, the level of play was what you expect from 50 of the area’s top seniors representing their respective schools and states. Most were aggressive and energetic. Some looked a little rusty. And everyone played with passion.

Missouri won 7-4 at historic Clemens Field, giving the Show-Me State’s skipper — Palmyra’s Mark Loman — a victory in what is truly his final game.

Loman retired at the end of the spring season after 20 seasons at Palmyra and more than 300 career victories. The Panthers lost to Elsberry in the Class 3 sectionals in Loman’s final game at Palmyra, meaning the all-star victory truly allowed Loman to walk away a winner.

Afterward, the Missouri all-stars showered him with a bucket of water as the team gathered near the third-base line.

It’s the way you might expect a braggin’ rights game to end.

How it began was unlike any other.

Quincy Notre Dame center fielder Ben Kasparie, who hit leadoff for Illinois, walked to the plate with a cell phone in his right hand and a bat in his left. Before stepping into the batter’s box, Kasparie snapped a selfie with Hannibal catcher Keaton Scott.

The cell phone went back to the dugout and Kasparie went to first base after reaching safely when his hard grounder down the third-base line ended up in left field. It jumpstarted a three-run inning for the Land of Lincolners, who came into the game leading the all-time series 4-3.

Missouri answered with three runs in the bottom of the frame. That ability to respond and nullify anything Illinois did well proved to be a theme for the game.

The Show-Me State grabbed a 4-3 lead on a Cooper Stotts RBI single in the second and held the advantage until the sixth. Pittsfield’s Nate Scranton went from first to third on a one-out throwing error and scored on an RBI single up the middle by Brown County’s Mason Henry to tie the game at 4.

In the bottom of the frame, Bowling Green’s Cooper Kiel smacked a hard grounder to third base that took a bad hop and went into left field, allowing two runs to score and Missouri to snare the lead for good. Stotts added an RBI single in the eighth inning.

Illinois couldn’t put the ball in play enough the final three innings to mount a rally. Bowling Green right-hander Kaden Chandler struck out two in the seventh inning, giving him 10 strikeouts over four innings as he earned Missouri MVP honors.

Stotts, the Marion County left-hander, got the final six outs — all with strikeouts.

What took place thereafter felt like a collective hug for the baseball community.

Parents and family members flooded the field for pictures, not just of their own sons but of the players they considered family. Because so many of the athletes played travel baseball together, the snapshots showed a mixture of red and blue jerseys.

At that point, the final score became inconsequential. The memories of years being committed to the game are what matter the most.