On Friday, Fatima defeated Priory 7-0 at Westphalia in the Class 3 quarterfinal as Blake Kliethermes threw a no-hitter against the St. Louis-area team.

“You dream of it as a coach, and it makes your job really easy,” said Coach Tyler VanGerpen of his junior hurler’s performance. “I’m just proud of him. He’s put in all the work this season, and it’s good to see him shine.”

He added that with Fatima’s penchant for winning tight games, most of which were played on the road this season, claiming a 7-0 win is even better.

“Usually, I say with our pitching staff, if we can get at least three or four runs, we’ve got a good chance, and if you get anything more, it’s a bonus,” said VanGerpen.

With Lions Field filled with fans, Kliethermes went out and did what he’s done all year: throw strikes.

“I knew I had a no-hitter going into the last inning,” he said. “I knew I had to keep it in the strike zone and let my defense work. I just tried not to think about it.”

He struck out one in the seventh, bringing him to eight on the day with just one walk — all on 79 pitches. Kliethermes had to leave the district championship game with one batter left due to reaching his pitch limit of 105. On Friday, he faced 26 batters.

Kliethermes knew he didn’t have to do it alone, highlighting a stellar play at third when Bryce Wieberg prevented a ball from reaching the outfield, and an outstanding diving catch in right-center field by Trevor Schulte. “I’ve been very confident in our defense all year,” Kliethermes said. “I got to go up there and be efficient for my team so that they can back me up — and they did.”

VanGerpen was pleased with his pitcher’s approach. “Today, he did a better job of playing with his defense,” the coach said. “He didn’t strike everybody out, and he didn’t try to strike everybody out. I think that was the difference between this outing and his district championship outing — he allowed his defense to work and allowed them to stay awake. They came through with a couple of big catches, and it’s nice to see a pitcher rely on his defense.”

Kliethermes’ strategy on the mound was to get ahead in the count with fastballs and then deliver a nasty slider. “That worked the whole game,” said Kliethermes.

Kliethermes hit a batter in the first, but after a strikeout, he induced a double play to end the threat.

While he was shutting down Priory hitters, Fatima’s offense took a bit to get going, with no score through two innings. In the second, Matthew “Munch” Robertson (0-2, sac) was hit by a pitch and Kliethermes (1-3) followed with a single, but both were stranded.

“The first inning is all nerves,” said VanGerpen. “Whoever can shake off the nerves the quickest and get settled is going to have a better chance at the end. We got four batters up and got the top of our lineup at least to start the game, and then we kept them at zero. That always allows an offense to gain momentum, even when they’re not doing anything because they know they’ve got a pitcher in a groove, and our defense was in a groove. So, it just allowed them to be a little more comfortable when things weren’t necessarily going their way.”

Close calls on steal attempts could have discouraged the Comets but VanGerpen wasn’t worried. “I thought the pitcher was a little slower than the guys we’ve been seeing lately, so I thought we could take advantage of it, and force the umpire to make a call,” he said. “The calls didn’t go our way but they were bang-bang plays that could have gone either way. So I’m happy with the way the guys executed, but not with the outcome.”

However, the Comets came to life in the third. Cody Schwartze (1-4) singled to lead off the inning but was caught trying to steal second. Wieberg (1-4) singled but Max Stuecken grounded to second and Wieberg was called out after colliding with the defender. Fortunately, neither was injured.

“Bryce wasn’t looking ahead,” said VanGerpen. “He was looking at the ball off the bat, so he had no idea where the base was, where the fielder was, or he was. Bryce was more surprised by the collision than the fielder was. I’m just glad no one was hurt.”

Colton Scheulen (3-3, RBI) singled, and Stuecken scored on an error that allowed Scheulen to reach third. Fatima led 1-0 but that was as far as it went in the third.

Glenn Berhorst (2-4, RBI) doubled to left to start the fourth and moved to third on a perfect infield bunt single by Robertson, who reached second on a passed ball. B. Kliethermes drew a walk to load the bags for Logan Kliethermes (2-4, RBI), whose sac fly plated Berhorst for a 2-0 lead.

B. Kliethermes got around the lone walk in the fourth, and Fatima hit the gas in the fifth.

Stuecken reached on an error and scored on the throw when Scheulen singled. Brody Kleffner (2-4, 3 RBI) stepped to the plate with one on and smashed the ball over the left field fence for a two-run HR. Tyler Bexten scored on the play as a courtesy runner for Scheulen.

The Comets added two insurance runs in the top of the seventh. Scheulen delivered his third hit of the day, a double to right field (Bexten CR). Kleffner singled (Tanner Huhn CR) to drive in Bexten, and Berhorst plated Huhn with a well-placed single to right.

That set the stage for B. Kliethermes to close out the no-hitter. He was not shy about calling out those who had no faith in the Comets.

“There have been people doubting us all year, and we play a tough schedule,” said B. Kliethermes. “Our record may not be the best, but we think they were the best we’ve seen, and we wanted to get that banner up in our gym.

“We’ve been working for this all season, wanting to go to Ozark,” he added.

Coach VanGerpen agreed. “Our schedule is very stacked with Class four, five, and six teams, and we competed with them the whole season,” he said. “We’ve had 13 losses, but we only lost three games by more than three runs. We were in every single game.”

VanGerpen noted his players are excited about competing in the Final Four, and believes the next two games will be telling. “As long as they keep showing up the way they are, they’ll compete,” he said.

The Comets (18-13) are slated to play Holden (17-10) in the semifinal at 1 p.m. today (Wednesday) at the Ozark Mountain Sports Complex.

With a win, Fatima would play the winner of the Portageville (24-9) - Fair Grove (27-5) semifinal at 1 p.m. on Thursday, June 5, in the championship. With a loss, the Comets would play for third at 10 a.m. on June 5.