Saints Take Series Over Plainsmen

After splitting their season opening double header with
the Northeastern Plainsmen on Saturday at Brent Gould Field, the Seward
County Saints picked up a series win with a sweep of both games Sunday
in Liberal to start the season 3-1. Game three of the series was an
exciting one as the teams would trade runs early on and would remain
deadlocked at 1 going to the 6th inning. The Plainsmen would explode
for 6 runs in the 6th as they chased Seward starter Jose Gonzalez out of
the game and then greeted the Saints bullpen with three straight hits to
go u p 7-1. Seward would chip away in the bottom of the frame with 4
runs to cut the deficit to 7-5 and give themselves a chance in the final
inning. In the 7th Northeastern would get a second home run from Alex
Schrupp to extend their lead to 8-5 but a gesture as he rounded the
bases did not sit well with the Saints and it would be the fire the guys
in green needed in the bottom half of the inning. Trailing 9-5 with
just 3 outs left, Seward would flip the light switch on. Jordan
Dallalio would walk to lead things off and the Saints would string
together three singles behind that to score a run and load the bases
with nobody out. Steve Polito would lace his second hit in as many
inning up the middle to score a pair of runs and the game was all tied
up at 8 and Seward was still in business with 2 on and no out in the
inning. After a fielder’s choice moved runners to 1st and 3rd, Jake
Barrios would come up and launch a 1-1 pitch off the right center field
wall to give the Saints the 9-8 walkoff win. Willy Gustin would finish
4 for 4 for the Saints in the win while Tyler Hill, Polito, and Jon
Mestas would all finish with multi hit games as well.

In the final game of the series it would again be
Northeastern that got on the board first as they scratched out a run in
the 1st against Saints starter Gavin Glanz who was toeing the mound for
the first time in a collegiate game Sunday. The Saints would answer in
the bottom half as Polito and Gustin opened the Seward half of the 1st
with singles and would later come around to score along with two other
Saints in the inning to take a 4-1 lead. Northeastern would get 2 in
the 3rd but the Saints would get a pair of their own as Ben Wainwright
smacked a double off the center field wall to bring in Mestas and
Barrios to make it 6-3 Seward. The Saints would keep the pressure on in
the 4th inning as they would capitalize on erratic Northeastern
pitching, picking up 3 walks in the inning, helping lead to 4 runs as
they found themselves on top 10-3. The Plainsmen would score once in
the 5th while the Saints would score a pair as the score sat at 12-4
going into the 6th. After Glanz worked a 1-2-3 top of the 6th, the
Saints would take full advantage of a one out error by the Plainsmen,
scoring a pair of two out runs to force the run rule once again 14-4.
Barrios would lead the way at the plate for Seward, going 3 for 4 with 3
RBI’s while Wainwright would smack a pair of doubles and finish 2 for 4
with 3 RBI’s and Gustin would end the afternoon 2 for 3 with 3 runs
scored. Glanz would go the distance in his first collegiate win,
allowing just 3 earned runs on 6 hits while striking out 2.

The Saints will be back in action for the third straight
day Monday at Brent Gould Field when they take on defending National
Champions Iowa Western at 12:00 and 2:30. (Roy Allen)