Seward Clobbers Clarendon

The Seward County Lady Saints finished off a perfect 6-0 home stand at Lady Saints Field Wednesday afternoon by hammering the Clarendon Lady Bulldogs 9-0 and 7-2 to move to 7-1 on the season. Seward would put game one away early with a 5 run 1st and 2 run 2^nd to go up 7-0 before cruising to the 9-0 run rule win in 5 innings. In game two they would wait a bit longer to get on the board as the game was 0-0 to the bottom of the 4^th before they scored 4 runs to take a 4-0 lead and would go on to win 7-2.

In the final two games of a 6 game home stand the Lady Saints would get things going early in game one of their double header with Clarendon as they retired the side in order in the top of the 1^st and got on the bats right away in their first trip to the plate. Lynda Musick would lead off the Seward 1^st with a triple and would quickly be driven in by Leah Sitter who doubled on the second pitch she saw to get Seward on the board. Sitter would be plated after stealing third base on a double to right center by Tiffany Santistevan and quickly the Lady Saints were ahead 2-0. They weren’t done yet as Michelle Duford would drive Santistevan home and Breanna Diaz would hammer one down the right field line to bring her around and make it 4-0 Seward. After a pair of walks to load the bases, Musick would come up for the second time in the inning and would be hit by a pitch to push a run home and make it 5-0 Lady Saints. Still in shock from the monster inning, the Clarendon bats would go down 1-2-3 again in the 2^nd and quickly the Lady Saints were back at the plate. Santistevan would walk to start the inning and a misplayed fly ball in the outfield would put runners at second and third with nobody out. The Lady Saints wouldn’t execute conventionally as a strikeout and infield popup left those runners in the same position with two outs but Kelsea Blackstock would come up with a big single up the middle to score both runners and put the Lady Saints ahead 7-0 after 2. The Lady Bulldogs would go hitless again in their half of the 3^rd and the Lady Saints would tack another run on in the bottom half of the inning to make it 8-0. Clarendon would get their first hit of the game in the 4^th inning but couldn’t push a run across and Seward would get their 9^th run of the game in the bottom of the 4^th when Blackstock doubled and would be driven in by a Bianca Adame single to make it 9-0. Facing the run rule, the Lady Bulldogs would get nothing done in the 5^th against Seward ace Sydney Cicchetti and back to back strikeouts would end the game with the Lady Saints on top 9-0. Cicchetti would pitch a nearly flawless complete game, allowing just the two 4^th inning singles in her first shutout of the 2011 campaign. Seven different Seward starters would pick up hits in the win and those same seven would all also add at least one RBI in the game. Blackstock led the way going 2 for 2 with 2 RBI’s while Adame finished 2 for 3 with a run scored in the victory. Musick, Sitter, Santistevan, and Diaz all finished 1 for 2 and each picked up an RBI for Seward.

GAME ONE BOX SCORE

After an offensive explosion in game one, game two was more of a pitchers dual early on as Seward’s Blaire Taylor and Clarendon’s Arlene Soto took the ball. Both teams would have traffic and chances in the first 3 innings of the game as the Lady Bulldogs left a runner at third base in each of their first three trips to the plate while Seward would leave a pair aboard in the 1^st. Neither team would be able to get on the board however and swiftly the game carried along tied at 0-0 into the 4^th inning. Taylor would have a quick 1-2-3 inning in the top half of the 4^th and the Lady Saints would respond and finally find their bats that had been hiding for the first part of the game. A leadoff walk to Santistevan and a single behid that from Jill Grounds would set up a sacrifice situation for Duford. The Lady Saints left fielder laid down a perfect bunt that Soto fielded but hesitated on which base to throw to and Duford would leg the play out and load the bases up for Seward with nobody out. Diaz would bring in the Lady Saints first run of the game with a sacrifice fly to center and an error by Clarendon would bring another run home to make it 2-0. With two outs in the inning, Ashley Sullivan would step to the plate with two runners on and would deliver a single up the box to score both runners and put the Lady Saints ahead 4-0 after 4. Taylor would mow through the bottom of the Clarendon order in the 5^th but Seward would go scoreless in their half as well and the score remained 4-0 going into the 6^th inning of play. After being shutout in game one and held off the scoreboard for the first 5 innings of game two, the Lady Bulldogs finally got something going in the top half of the 6^th as back to back singles and then a beanball would bring the tying run to the plate with nobody out. Clarendon would finally score their first run of the day as a gapper scored two runs to make it 4-2 and put the tying run now just 120 feet away as runners were on second and third still with no outs in the inning. The young Seward right hander would bow her neck and dig in there though as Taylor induced a ground ball to short and a short fly ball to center before a groundout to second base to end the threat and keep the Lady Saints on top 4-2. Blackstock would start the Seward 6^th with a line drive triple off the right field wall and would score on the next pitch after an error by the Clarendon shortstop. After Musick was hit by her second pitch of the day, the Lady Dawg defense let them down again as a miscommunication on a popup in the middle of the infield would cost Clarendon two runs and make it 7-2 Lady Saints. Seward would quickly get one out in the 7^th but a double behind that gave Clarendon a glimmer of hope again as their lineup turned over to the top. The next hitter would line a single up the middle but Sitter would throw a frozen rope to the plate as Clarendon tried to score their third run of the game and she would be on target, gunning down the runner at home to record Seward’s second out of the inning and keep it a 7-2 game. The costly out for the Lady Bulldogs would deflate any momentum that they possibly had and a groundout by the following hitter would end the game and give the Lady Saints a 7-2 win in game two. Seward would be outhit by Clarendon 7-5 in the win but would be helped by 8 Clarendon errors which led to all 7 of the Lady Saints runs being unearned in the game. Grounds and Sullivan would do nearly all the damage offensively for the Lady Saints as Grounds recorded 3 of the 4 Seward hits in the game while Sullivan drove in 2 of the 3 RBI’s that the Lady Saints picked up. Taylor would earn her third straight win, going all 7 innings and allowing 7 hits and 2 runs while striking out 4.

GAME TWO BOX SCORE

Seward completes the 6 game sweep of their short home stand with the two wins over the Lady Bulldogs and now sit at 7-1 overall on the season. They will now learn how life on the road is as they will play their next 10 games away from the friendly confines of Lady Saints Field. Their 10 game stretch will start this weekend as they travel to Trinidad on Saturday for a double header with the Lady Trojans before catching the Lamar Runnin’ Lopes Sunday on their way back to the Sunflower State.