All Around Effort Leads Saints Over Rose State

The Seward County Saints picked up a 9-2 win in their non-conference series opener against the Rose State Raiders Friday afternoon at Brent Gould Field in Liberal. Seward got six solid innings from starter Jared Biddy, three scoreless innings of relief from lefty Pierce Edwards, and 14 hits from their offense to win their sixth straight game and creep back near the .500 mark on the year.

The Saints got on the board first on Friday, using a two out Raider error in the 1st to plate their first run and an RBI single to right from Josh Nicol later in the inning to go in front early on 2-0.

Rose State had some two out magic of their own in the top half of the 3rd, picking up three hits including a two run double to tie the score at 2.

Seward took the lead back in the bottom half of the 3rd, getting an RBI single up the middle and off the second base bag from Jared Ledbetter to go up 3-2, but they weren’t done there. Cody Stineman blooped a double over the infield to drive home two more for the Saints and an RBI single from Nic Ricigliano added another to make it 6-2. Still going in the 3rd, the Saints scored their fifth two out run when Austin Bartosovsky smashed a double off the center field wall to make it 7-2 Seward after three.

Jared Biddy put up two more zeroes on the mound for the Saints in the 4th and 5th and allowed Seward to add to their lead in the bottom half of the 5th when Stineman stung a solo shot to dead center to lead off the inning and push the Saints lead to 8-2.

Biddy finished his solid outing with another blank frame in the 6th before handing the ball to southpaw Pierce Edwards. Edwards was as locked in as Biddy was, throwing three straight scoreless innings to finish off the game while Seward added a run in the 8th to knock off the Raiders 9-2.

The Saints outhit Rose 14-5 in the win and made just one error compared to the Raiders three. Toni Dorado and Josh Nicol each had 3 hits for the Saints in the win, marking Dorado’s sixth straight game with 3 or more hits. Stineman finished a big day 2 for 4, accounting for 5 runs with 2 runs scored and 3 driven home. Biddy earned the win on the mound, scattering 5 hits in 6 innings of work, yielding 2 runs while striking out 5 to improve to 3-0 on the year. Edwards put together his best outing of the season on the mound as well, throwing three scoreless innings to close out the game, earning his first save of the year for Seward.

The Saints get back to within one game of .500 on the year at 14-15 with the win, capturing their sixth straight victory. Rose State drops their third straight, falling to 10-14.

The Saints and Raiders will hook up again on Saturday at Brent Gould Field in Liberal in a 12:00 doubleheader to wrap up the series.

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