Kilgore vs. Kilgore Vol. 1: Father, son meet in Joplin-Neosho game
· Yahoo Sports
NEOSHO, Mo. — Keith and Chase Kilgore led their teams out onto the turf baseball field at Neosho Junior High on Tuesday evening for the first battle between father and son as head coaches.
Keith Kilgore’s Neosho Wildcats came away with a 3-1 victory in their first match.
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The Kilgores spent their lives as a family in Arkansas but are now all in the Joplin area.
Keith Kilgore was in the education system in Arkansas for 30 years and was a head baseball coach for 16 of those years. He started his head coaching career at Gravette High School before going on to Bentonville and then Rogers Heritage.
After playing college baseball at Pittsburg State University, son Chase was an assistant at DeSoto High School in the St. Louis area for three years. Then last spring, he found himself as the skipper at Lamar after one year as Scott Quinly’s assistant there.
He was named Joplin’s head baseball coach last summer.
“It was fun. You’d like to come out on top in this game for sure, but he does a great job with that team and they got us today. Hopefully we see them again in district play,” Chase Kilgore said.
“Man, I’m just proud of the job that he has done in Joplin. They have had some very big wins, so I know their kids respond to him. You can tell that they’re very well coached. They don’t make many mistakes,” Keith Kilgore said. “It’s a proud moment to watch your son lead a team and play to that level. That was one of our biggest wins, and hopefully that will be momentum for us down the road.”
When asked about a potential rematch in the postseason, Keith recalled going 0-2 against the Eagles last year. The Wildcats fell 6-1 in the regular season and by the same score in the opening round of the district tournament.
2026 is a new year, and Neosho (13-7) is now 1-0 against Joplin (10-7).
Coverage of the game can be found on Page 1B.