Saints Drop Midweek Slugfest With Clarendon

The Seward County Saints came up on the short end of a 30 run slugfest Wednesday afternoon on the road at Clarendon, falling to the Bulldogs 16-14 despite banging out 17 hits in the contest. 

The Saints jumped in front early 2-0 with a pair of 1^st inning runs as Brendan Madsen scored on a passed ball and Brian Tims drove home Errett Edwards to put Seward up two. 

It didn’t take long for the Bulldogs to strike back as the first five Clarendon hitters of the 1^st reached base with three of them scoring to make it a 3-2 game in favor of the home team and Clarendon didn’t stop there, adding another run later in the inning to stretch their lead to 4-2. 

The carousel on the bases continued in the 2^nd as Seward got an RBI triple from Madsen and a single from Edwards behind that to knot the score at four. 

Seward took their first lead of the game in the 3^rd as Jacob Nielsen lifted a sac fly to right to put the Saints up 5-4. 

The Saint lead didn’t last long though as a solo home run to open up the Clarendon 3^rd tied the score at five and the Bulldogs tacked on another run later in the inning to make it 6-5. 

A wild pitch on a third strike allowed Seward to tie the score once again in the 4^th, but Clarendon exploded for four more runs in the bottom of the inning to take their largest lead of the game at 10-6. 

The Saints scored again in the 5^th to cut the Clarendon lead to 10-7 but the Bulldogs answered with a solo home run to once again make it a four run game at 11-7. 

Seward was back on the offensive in the 6^th, scoring runs on a passed ball and a groundout to get back to within two at 11-9. 

The Saints pitching staff could not hold Clarendon down though as the Bulldogs put up another crooked number, this time a five spot in the bottom of the 6^th to stretch their lead to 15-9.

Seward kept fighting, scoring for the seventh straight inning in the top of the 7^th, getting a two run single from Cody Coontz and a groundout from Nielsen to inch back to within four at 15-11. 

Jared Biddy homered in the 8^th to get the Saints back to within one at 15-14, but Clarendon added an insurance run in the bottom of the inning and Seward failed to score for the first time in the game in the 9^th as they fell 16-14.

Nine different Saints had hits in the loss as they banged out 17 as a team.  Edwards and Tims had three hits apiece for the Saints while Biddy and Nielsen drove home three each. Seward struggled on the mound, allowing 21 hits and five walks to the Bulldogs.  Jordan Pepper took the loss on the rubber, yielding five hits and four runs in just one inning of work to fall to 0-3 on the year. 

The Saints fall to 9-18 on the year with the loss while Clarendon evens up at .500 at 12-12.

Seward will be back in action this weekend at Brent Gould Field in Liberal as they host the Colby Trojans Saturday and Sunday beginning at 1:00.