In a familiar venue at Lawrence Dumont Stadium in
Wichita, seven former Seward County Saints became National Champions
Friday night by taking home the 2010 NBC World Series Championship in
the tournaments 76th installment. The Bee Jays defeated the Seattle
Studs 9-6 in a one game, winner take all championship game, to avenge an
earlier loss to the Studs and finish the tournament 7-1. 2008 graduate
Tomas Cruz had the ball in his hand with the game on the line with two
outs in the bottom of the 9th while fellow ’08 grad David Masters was
ready to receive the pitch behind the plate. 2010 NJCAA All-American
Kelby Tomlinson had just made yet another spectacular play in short
center field to record the 2nd out of the inning while fellow 2010 grads
Quay Grant and Jared Wagner, as well as ’09 Saints closer Travis Parker
were on their feet in the bullpen. Not to be forgotten was 2007-08
Saint Christian Kowalchuk who was one of the key members of the Bee
Jays pitching staff all summer long, but was shut down late in the
season due to an arm injury and was unable to pitch in the tournament.
Many dreams had ended in Wichita for these seven young
men as in 2008 Tomas Cruz, David Masters, and Christian Kowalchuk’s
Seward County careers came to an end on the turf of Lawrence Dumont
Stadium. In 2009 Travis Parker’s Saints were shocked at Dumont by
Cowley in two straight games to end his one magical season in Liberal.
Finally just three short months ago, Kelby Tomlinson, Quay Grant, and
Jared Wagner thought that they had seen the last of the historic stadium
when their two year ride with the Saints came to a close after an extra
inning battle with rival Hutchinson went the way of the Blue Dragons.
However, in a magical two week run that culminated with a championship
game rematch against the Seattle Studs, those seven Saints had
undoubtedly one of the highlights of their baseball careers on the ‘old
school’ turf carpet of LD as the final out was secured and nobody else
in the amateur baseball world was above them as they were crowned NBC
World Champions.
Cruz was THE man in the back end of the bullpen for the
Bee Jays since he joined the team late in the season. After posting a
2-0 record with 4 saves and a 0.56 ERA during the regular season, the
Saint turned Clemson Tiger threw in 5 of the 8 Bee Jay games in the
tournament, picking up 2 wins and a save in 7 2/3 innings of work.
Masters played in 6 games in the tournament and drew the call to handle
the Liberal staff in the championship game behind the plate on Friday.
He posted a .977 fielding percentage behind the plate during the
tournament and scored 6 runs while driving in a pair. Tomlinson capped
a summer in which he was named Bee Jays MVP by leading all players in
the tournament with 12 stolen bases while playing gold glove defense and
posting a .395 on base percentage in the eight games. Parker threw just
once in the tournament but was a key piece of the Bee Jays lockdown
bullpen during the regular season, pitching in 17 games and posting a
2.42 ERA in 26 innings pitched on the season. Grant threw a pair of
scoreless innings in the tournament, allowing just 2 hits while striking
out a batter. Wagner drew the start for Liberal in their win Sunday
against St. Joseph, Missouri and went 4 innings, allowing 2 runs on 3
hits and later in the tournament threw a scoreless inning against
Seattle in the team’s first matchup of the week. Kowalchuk, while not
able to pitch in the tournament, played a large part in the Bee Jays
success this summer. The former Saints lefty and then College World
Series participant with the University of Arkansas, recorded a 3-2
record for Liberal in 25 innings pitched, striking out 18 and walking
just 7 in 6 starts on the year.
The group joins a list of players a mile long that
started their big league dreams in Wichita at the NBC Tournament. The
list includes current MLB stars such as Albert Pujols, Tim Lincecum,
Trevor Hoffman, and Mark Texeira along with legends like Satchel Paige,
Dave Winfield, Tony Gwynn, Barry Bonds, and Mark McGwire also spotting
the list. Whose name will it be 10 years from now that we look back and
remember donning the Bee Jay powder blue and red? It could be one of
these seven who will always say that their college career started right
here in Liberal as a Saint at Seward County.