Jay Daubenberger
Seward County baseball returned to action on Friday when they made the trip to Odessa, Texas to share the field with the Wranglers in a doubleheader to begin their four game road trip this week where the Saints were unable to stop Odessa from finding their way home time and again as they lost in a sweep of both games to the Wranglers to start their road stint with a rough start.
Mason Hagel-Pitt was able to get the Saints on the board in the top of the first with a single on a hard ground ball towards left field that allowed Nathan Hopkins to make his way home for the first score of the day by Seward County and take an early 1-0 lead. Odessa responded with a run of their own on a fielder’s choice to tie it up while a single in the bottom of the third put the Wranglers in front 2-1. Trenton Rowan stepped up to the plate for the Saints in the top of the fourth and singled on a line drive to right field that drove in Connor Raney to lock the score back up 2-2 before Odessa pushed themselves away and Seward County was unable to round the bases the rest of the game. A pair of singles by the Wranglers added another two runs to their total and an error from the Saints infield put Odessa ahead by four 6-2 where the score would stay as the Wranglers took game one over Seward County.
Seward County struggled to score in game one but that was not a problem in the first inning of game two with Hagel-Pitt singling on a fly ball to center to drive in Cameron Cartwright while another single from Todd Baffa allowed Rowan to find home to go up 2-0. A double from Brock Sundlie drove in another two runs for the Saints with both Hagel-Pitt and Baffa being rewarded for their earlier hits and put Seward County in front 4-0. A big double in the bottom of the second by Odessa put three scores on the board for the Wranglers to close the gap to 4-3 while a home run in the third tied it back up 4-4. A sacrifice fly out to center field drove another two runs in for Odessa to take the lead 6-4 but Hopkins put the score even once again when he hit a home run beyond the fences to left field to make it 6-6 entering the fifth. The Wranglers did not back away as they scored the next six runs of the game including five in the bottom of the sixth before Hagel-Pitt grounded out and was able to reach base off an Odessa error while driving in Rowan to put the score at 12-7. Three more runs for the Wranglers sealed the game for Odessa with a 15-7 win over the Saints to complete the doubleheader sweep on day one of Seward County’s road trip.
The Saints now fall to 4-6 on the 2024 season and will have to regroup quickly as they take on Midland in a doubleheader Saturday with game one beginning at 12:00 and game two at 3:00 PM.
