West Marion’s Randy Ramos tries to steal second base and is tagged out by Southeast Lauderdale’s Ryan Smith after sliding past the bag Thursday night.

It was the same thing Shay Cooper has seen a few times too often: Zach Flaskamp pitches a gem, and the offense is unable to score any runs behind him.

Despite an elite performance by the Southeast Lauderdale ace, West Marion was able to take a 1-0 win in Game 1 of the best-of-three series in the opening round of the MHSAA Class 3A playoffs. The game was scoreless until the ninth inning when the Trojans pushed one run across, and the Tigers went down in order in the bottom of the frame to seal the West Marion win.

“It’s just sickening for Flaskamp, who threw so well, and that’s the worst part about it,” Cooper said. “That’s happened two, three, four times this year: He throws a great game — he throws a great extra-inning game — and then we cannot come up with a run. I hate that for him to throw as well as he did. I don’t know exactly how many strikeouts he had, and he had them stifled for seven or eight innings, but we just could not come up with something for him.”

Flaskamp pitched all nine innings for Southeast Lauderdale, giving up one run on three hits and two walks while striking out 13 Trojan batters. He had a no-hitter with two outs in the top of the sixth inning before Randy Ramos reached on an infield single.

“He was in full command of all his pitches and was pretty much throwing him when he wanted to, so that was the biggest thing,” Cooper said.

In the top of the ninth, West Marion’s Jayden Duncan led off with a single, and Ramos laid down a bunt to move him to second. Flaskamp fielded the bunt, but instead of throwing to first, he attempted to get the lead runner out at second. The throw was slightly wide, and Tigers second baseman Ryan Smith was forced to step off the bag to field the throw, allowing the runner to safely reach second. The next Trojan batter reached on a bunt single, giving West Marion bases-loaded and no outs. 

Trace McNabb finally drove in the only run of the game with a sacrifice fly in the next at-bat, and though Flaskamp was able to strike out the next two batters, the Tigers came to bat in the bottom of the inning trailing for the first time.

“Leadoff base hit, then a bunt where we made a bad decision and didn’t get an out,” Cooper said. “We went after the lead runner, and the throw was a little off the line, but I still thought we should have gotten the out at first. We didn’t get the out, then they bunted into a hole in our coverage, and now you’re in a bind with bases loaded and no outs.”

The Tigers finished the game with just one hit and one walk, and both teams struggled with a larger-than-usual strike zone, but Cooper didn’t use that as an excuse for the lack of offense.

“They have to be able to adjust,” Cooper said. “Even if it is a little bigger, you make your adjustments in the box. I’d rather it be like that than throwing into a shoebox to be honest with you. You’re supposed to be able to make your adjustments as a hitter, and I don’t think we did that very well.”

Southeast Lauderdale Dakota Boney, who is slated to start Game 2 Friday at West Marion, had the Tigers’ lone hit. Flaskamp worked a walk, but only one other Southeast Lauderdale hitter reached base, and it was on an error.

Southeast Lauderdale fell to 14-10 on the season.