Heartfelt Win on a Heartbreaking Day

Never had their sweat and effort meant more. Hours after their season long bat boy, nine year old Kaiser Carlile, was taken by ambulance to St. Francis Via Christie in critical condition, the Bee Jays won a gut wrenching 12-5 game in 13 innings against the San Diego Waves at the NBC World Series. Carlile was inadvertently struck by a bat as a BJ was taking a practice swing while Carlile was hustling to retrieve a bat. The Bee Jays were noticeably shaken if not inconsolable after this heartbreaking event transpired in front of their dugout. Sports has a way of captivating us before a real world event sends us spiraling back down to earth. That was the case Saturday on a hot and humid day in Wichita at the 81st NBC World Series.

The game went on after the BJ’s huddled several times and knelt in prayer. Before the accident, the Western Baseball Association’s champs took a 2-0 lead with a two run homer in the first. Micah Green led off the BJ third with a double before a Jaylen Hubbard bunt pushed him to third. This is when Carlile’s injury occurred. Pinch hitter Easton Johnson grounded to short to drive home Green. The Waves extended the lead to 3-1 in the third. Liberal struck for three in the fourth to take a 4-3 lead. Brent Williams doubled and Brody Miller doubled him home with a ground ball down the third base line. With two outs, Green laced a two RBI single to center to give the BJ’s a 4-3 lead. The Waves put together three straight singles in the sixth to score a run and chase starter Kadon Simmons. But Jakob Hernandez entered the game and got out of a two on and no out jam to keep the game tied at four. Green doubled to lead off the seventh and Gavin Wehby tripled to left to score him. That 5-4 lead was short lived as the Waves tied it in the bottom of the seventh. The BJ bullpen proved their mettle as Will Olds pitched three scoreless innings working out of a bases loaded jam in the ninth and wiggled free of a lead off HBP in the 10th. Joel Kuhnel pitched three scoreless for the win and hit 96 mph but worked around a lead off single in the 11th and a lead off double in the 12th. The BJ bats broke through in the lucky 13th. Cox led off with a double to right center. Hubbard singled home the lead run. An error on a would be double play ball made it 7-5. Wehby broke the game open with a triple off the padded red wall in center to make it 10-5. Williams deposited his seventh homer of the season over the wall in left to make it 12-5.

The Bee Jays play the Haysville Aviators Sunday night at 7 on 1270 and kscbnews.net.