The Higbee Tigers took the first step in defending their district title from a year ago Thursday night, rolling past Madison 10-0 in the opening round of the Class 1 District 12 tournament at Glasgow. Behind a solid pitching performance from senior Robert Smith and a patient, disciplined offense, the Tigers advanced to Monday’s semifinal against the No. 1 seed Northwestern (Mendon)/Brunswick.

Higbee head coach Ryan Vogelgesang said the win was exactly what his team needed.

“It was really refreshing to watch the at-bats that we took,” Vogelgesang said. “We’ve been struggling at the plate recently. To see the at-bats that we put up today, the runs that we put up, was good. We hit the ball well. It’s not just that we played a Madison team that made mistakes. We hit the ball well. We gapped the ball well. We found a lot of barrels.”

After scoring one run in the second inning, Higbee blew the game open with four runs in the third and three more in the fourth.

“We had very patient at-bats,” Vogelgesang said. “We knew going in we might not see a lot of strikes, and we wanted to make them work for us. We didn’t want to do too much at the plate. We got into a lot of hitters’ counts, and at that point, you kind of know what pitch is coming.”

Senior Robert Smith led the Tigers on both sides of the ball. On the mound, he threw a no-hitter over 4.2 innings with seven strikeouts and four walks, while staying within a tight pitch limit.

“We were going to keep him to 75. It keeps him eligible Monday against Mendon,” Vogelgesang explained. “He came in there knowing he had to be efficient in this one. He had a couple of walks early. But when he lived in the zone, he was tough to beat. There were not a lot of hard-hit balls in play off of him.”

Smith also sparked the Tigers at the plate as the leadoff hitter with a double and two walks and scoring three runs.

“That’s a guy that found it at the right time with his swing,” Vogelgesang said. “He barreled a couple, rolled a double, had a hard-hit ball there towards the end. In the first inning, he had a hard-hit ball that the left fielder made a fantastic play on. He hit the ball really well today.”

Danny Janssen led all hitters, going 3-for-4 with two runs and one RBI. Hunter Dougherty drove in a game-high three runs on two hits, while Cale Nelson, Landon Tuggle, Brayson Harlan, and Chase Price all contributed offensively.

Blake Boggs came on in relief in the final inning and secured the final out after allowing Madison’s only hit.

“He wasn’t in there just because it was a mop-up role,” Vogelgesang said. “He was going to come in whether it was 1-0 or 12-0. We know he was going to give us strikes.”

Looking ahead to Tuesday’s semifinal, Higbee will face familiar foe Northwestern, which defeated the Tigers twice this season.

“They’re in our conference. They beat us in a tournament, and they beat us in the regular season,” Vogelgesang explained. “But I told our guys it’s difficult to beat a team three times in a row. We play a good brand of baseball. Mentally, we’re taking it game by game. We didn’t think about Mendon until we got the last out today. They’ve got everything to lose. We’ve got nothing to lose.”

With Thursday’s win, Higbee improves to 6-12-1 on the season, while Madison’s campaign ends at 3-13. The Tigers were scheduled to face Mendon (14-5) on Monday, but the night’s games were postponed due to rain until Tuesday after the Advertiser went to press. The first pitch at John Donaldson Field on Tuesday was scheduled for 5 p.m.

Also on Tuesday, second-seeded Glasgow was scheduled to face off against third-seeded Northeast (Cairo)—currently ranked No. 9 in Class 1—at 7 p.m. The Yellowjackets had a first-round bye in the six-team tournament. Cairo shut out Macon County/Bucklin 10-0 in Thursday’s opener. The winners of the semifinal games will play for the district title at 6 p.m. tonight (Wednesday).