Seward Softball Eclipses Garden City

Jay Daubenberger

Seward County made an hour-long trip on Monday morning towards Garden City and spent their time during the solar eclipse on the softball field for a doubleheader where some big home run bombs from Alyssa Morgan in the two games allowed the Lady Saints to sweep their conference rival and return home with two more wins under their belt 6-4 and 7-4.

Morgan started her strong hitting in the top of the first of game one with a single on a line drive to center field that drove in the first run of the day and gave SCCC a quick 1-0 lead over Garden City who tied it at 1-1 in the bottom off an unfortunate error. Mollie Hardy doubled out to left field to drive in SCCC’s second run while a big swing from Alyna Frazier doubled their total to 4-1 entering the bottom of the third. Aaliyah Gutierrez and Noemi Tudon used their speed to their advantage as they both stole home in the top of the fourth to grow the Seward County lead out to five at 6-1 over the Broncbusters who responded with two homers over the next two innings to bring the score within two but could not surpass the Lady Saints who grabbed game one with a 6-4 win.

Seward County started game two off in a big way with Gutierrez stealing two bases in the top of the first to become the Lady Saints career leader in stolen bases while also putting SCCC on the board before Morgan stepped up and slammed out a two-run homer to make it a 3-0 lead. Hailey Michalik singled on a line drive to center field that drove in another two early scores in the top of the first for Seward County and erupted their lead out to 5-0 entering the bottom of the inning. From their it was a pitching battle between both sides before Garden City was able to score their first run off a sacrifice fly while a three-run bomb out beyond the fences allowed them to creep back to within one at 5-4 entering the sixth. A combo of home runs from Kamryn Martinez and Morgan stretched the lead back to three at 7-4 and allowed the Lady Saints to break out the brooms to complete the sweep.

Seward County now improves to 18-14 overall on the 2024 season while remaining in the top portion of the KJCCC standings with a 12-6 record. SCCC will continue the second half of conference action as they take on the Barton Cougars in a doubleheader at home on Wednesday with game one starting at 1:00 PM.