Saints Bounce Beavers and Take Conference Lead

It was another wild weekend in Pratt. It typically is a crazy weekend when the Saints play at Pratt, and this weekend was no different. Seward split with Pratt Saturday winning 12-1 in five innings but losing 18-15 before the Saints swept the Beavers Sunday 5-2 and 6-5 to take the series 3-1. The Saints are 16-8 in the Jayhawk West and move one game ahead of 15-9 Dodge City who lost 3-4 at home to Butler.

Saturday, the Saints won the first game 12-1 in five innings. Tyler Wiedenfeld (8-2) used just 52 pitches for the win. Alex Scanlan was 3-3 while Bryson Allen and Francisco Balanos both had two hits which included a triple. Devan Nelson, Mason Marshall, and Johnny Griffith added two hits a piece.

Game two Saturday was the wild game of the weekend. Seward vaulted to a 13-5 lead going to the bottom of the seventh before PCC chased home seven runs. Seward still led 15-14 going to the bottom of the ninth but Pratt’s Jordan Crouch hit a game winning grand slam. It was his third home run of the game and he drove home eight runs. Troy Owen was 3-5 with two doubles and two RBI’s in the loss.

Hayden Howard (4-3) picked up a weary Saints bullpen Sunday pitching the distance in a 5-2 win. Seward scored three in the first and single runs in the second and third to build a 5-0 lead. Troy Owen was 2-4 with a double and an RBI.

Garrett Smith and Adam Guay stepped up big time in the second game Sunday at Stanion Field. Smith who had a 16.50 ERA coming into the game pitched four and one-third innings allowing two runs with four strikeouts and no walks. Adam Guay went three and two-thirds allowing one earned run and Tyler Wiedenfeld came on for a scoreless ninth. Seward appeared to have collapsed in the bottom of the eighth allowing two runs on three errors to make it 5-4 going to the ninth. But Seward scored two in the ninth. Bryson Allen doubled home the tying run and Devan Nelson hit a sacrifice fly to drive home the lead run. Alex Scanlan was 2-5 with two RBI doubles in the win. Bryson Allen added two hits including an RBI double.

Seward is 22-21 overall and Pratt falls to 15-16 overall and 8-12 in the Jayhawk West.

Seward hosts Clarendon Wednesday at 3 p.m. at Brent Gould Field.