Seward Opens KJCCC Play with Sweep at Colby

Jay Daubenberger

Seward County softball continued their road stint on Saturday as they begun conference play in the Jayhawk against the Colby Trojans where the Lady Saints were able to start KJCCC action undefeated with a sweep of Colby in the doubleheader with an 8-4 win in game one and a come from behind 8-7 win in game two.

It was a battle between pitchers for both sides over the course of the first three innings with the Trojans pulling ahead by one over Seward County until a sacrifice fly from Alyssa Morgan brought home Aaliyah Gutierrez to lock the score up 1-1 after three innings. The Lady Saints dominated in the top of the fourth behind a three-run homer by Gutierrez to create a 5-1 lead over the Trojans and kept their offensive firepower going with a two-run bomb that went far beyond the fences by Anberlin O’Dell to make the score 7-4 in the top of the sixth. Gutierrez stepped up to the plate one final time in the seventh and once again answered the call with her second home run of the game to seal an 8-4 win in game one for Seward County.

It was Colby who started strong in the second game of the doubleheader with a 4-0 start in the first two innings until O’Dell again swung for the fences and reached beyond her goal for a two-run homer to cut their deficit in half at 4-2 to end the third inning. Another pair of runs by the Trojans over the next couple of innings put Colby’s lead to 6-2 entering the top of the sixth where the heavy hitting continued for the Lady Saints as Gutierrez knocked out her third home run of the day to drive in Mollie Hardy for another two runs while Noemi Tondi hit her first career home run to slash their deficit down to one 6-5. A pitching error by the Trojans allowed Morgan to steal home and knot the score up at 6-6 before entering the final inning of action. O’Dell singled her way out to right field to drive in Kaylin Jones and Gutierrez to put SCCC ahead for the first time in game two 8-6 and despite one final score for the Trojans in the bottom of the seventh, it was Seward County who grabbed the win 8-7 to complete the sweep and start KJCCC play 2-0.

Lady Saints softball now improves to 6-8 on the 2024 season with a 2-0 start in Jayhawk conference action after sweeping Colby in the doubleheader. They will now wrap up their road stint this Wednesday at Trinidad State before finally returning home to take on Garden City on Saturday.