Cartwright’s Grand Slam Sends Saints to a Split

Jay Daubenberger

Liberal, Kansas – Seward County remains even in conference action after splitting their final two games on Saturday where despite dropping the third game of a four-game series with Cloud County, the Saints were led by Cameron Cartwright who knocked out a grand slam in the final game to put Seward County ahead and grab a win to end the series in a draw 2-2 with the T-Birds.

The Saints struggled to hit the ball in the first game of the day as they quickly fell behind Cloud County after a big double in the top of the second from the T-Birds put them ahead 3-0 over Seward County. A fly ball from Trenton Rowan out to left field ended up being dropped thanks to an error from Cloud County and allowed Connor Raney to find home and cut the gap to 3-1 in the third. The Saints could not prevent the T-Birds from adding to their score however as they upped their lead out to ten entering the seventh off a two-run homer to take an 11-1 lead over Seward County. Cartwright’s first big hit of the day resulted in a solo home run to get the Saints back on the board, but Seward County could not connect again as they fell 11-2 in game one.

It was Cloud County who again scored first to start the second game as another two-run homer from the T-Birds put them ahead 3-0 to start the first inning. A pair of runs in the bottom of the first allowed the Saints to cut it to one as a ground out from Mason Hagel-Pitt drove in Cartwright to make it 3-2. A single by Raney drove in Keagon Pitton in the bottom of the second locked the score back up at 3-3 but two more runs from Cloud County allowed them to push back ahead by two with a 5-3 lead entering the bottom of the fifth where Seward County was able to connect on their biggest hit of the series. Cartwright stepped up to bat with bases loaded and swung as hard as he could to slam one out beyond the center field fences for a high-powered Grand Slam to put the Saints back in front 7-5 and despite one final run for the T-Birds, Elias Herrera struck out the final batter to secure a 7-6 win for Seward County to end the series in a tie 2-2.

The Saints continue their winning season with a 16-15 overall record after splitting the series with Cloud County to put themselves at 4-4 in KJCCC action. They will continue their conference schedule at home next Thursday when the Barton Cougars drive into Liberal to begin the first two of a four-game series.