After posting two come-from-behind victories to win the Class 4, District 3 championship, the Oakville Senior High School baseball team ran out of steam last week, dropping a 12-5 decision to Parkway South in the state sectional.

The trip to the state sectional for Oakville (20-6, 6-2 Suburban West) was the Tigers’ first since 2003.

“You hate to hang the whole season on one game, but obviously we needed to play better defense and obviously their 18 hits didn’t help,” Oakville High head coach Rich Sturm said. “The bottom line is that Parkway South outplayed us. You have to give them credit because they played better than we did.”

In the May 20 game, Parkway South (16-7, 5-3 Suburban West) pelted Oakville starting pitcher Nick Schmiemeier for six runs on 10 hits in 22⁄3 innings. Schmiemeier finished the season with a 5-4 record and a 2.10 ERA.

“Obviously, in the first two innings he worked himself out of trouble because I believe Parkway South stranded four guys,” Sturm recalled. “There were a couple of plays that we should have made be-hind him, but we didn’t.

“Parkway South is a very good team and they took advantage of those mistakes. It’s just unfortunate that we couldn’t have helped him out more defensively.”

Bryan Doyle relieved Schmiemeier in the third inning and gave up one run on two hits in 11⁄3 innings.

Doyle was relieved in the fifth inning by Bubba Bradshaw, who gave up five runs on five hits in three innings.

“Those were our top three guys all year long and when you’re in a lose-and-you-go-home situation, we had to exhaust our resources with those guys,” Sturm said. “Brian came in and did a fairly good job in 22⁄3 innings and Bubba came in and pitched the last three innings … And a couple of times, he missed location and a couple of times, we made mistakes and Parkway South took advantage of that.”

The Tigers racked up three home runs against Parkway South as Ryan Huck, Dan Chambliss and Tyler Mischel tried to chip away at the Patriots’ substantial lead.

Huck finished the season with a .427 batting average with 24 RBI and two home runs.

Chambliss batted .349 with 21 RBI and two home runs while Mischel tied with Drew Levi and Mike Moore for the team lead with three home runs. Mischel also batted .416 with 16 RBI.