Jay Daubenberger

Liberal, Kansas – After having cut game two short this past Wednesday after three innings, Seward County and Colby resumed their second matchup in Liberal on Sunday afternoon where the Trojans took down the Saints with a walk-off homer in the ninth and then beat SCCC again in game three of the series 11-9 as Seward County fell behind in the series 2-1.

After going scoreless through the first three innings of game two this past Thursday, both sides continued their defensive battle as the Saints gave up only four hits in the first eight innings. Seward County was able to hold off the Trojans but could not find their stride offensively as the score remained locked at 0-0 heading into the bottom of the ninth where the only score of the game came off a walk-off homer from Colby to take the game 1-0 and tie the series up.

Nine innings weren’t needed to score the first run of game three with the Trojans scoring on a sacrifice fly to right field in the first to make it a 1-0 lead over the Saints. Mason Hagel-Pitt evened the score up in the bottom of the second with a big swing that led to a solo home run to make it a 1-1 game entering the third. Three runs from Colby in the fifth put SCCC in a three-score hole but trimmed it back to one when Todd Baffa connected for a 2 RBI double to center field to bring home Connor Raney and Mason Gilbert to bring the Trojan lead down to 4-3.

A pair of home runs in the sixth for Colby led to five runs that extended their lead to six over the Saints who once again needed an answer in the bottom of the inning to keep things close. The answer came in the form of an RBI single from Kelvin Juarez to drive in a score for Seward County while a walk with bases loaded and a score off a sacrifice fly added two more runs to close the gap back to three at 9-6 Trojans. Colby managed to add two more to their total to dig the Saints into another big hole but some late scores in the final inning helped bring it to a two-run game as Gilbert doubled on a line drive to left field to bring home two more for Seward County but couldn’t complete the comeback as they fell 11-9 to the Trojans.

SCCC falls behind in the series 2-1 now to Colby as the two teams wrap up their series tomorrow with game four taking place at Brent Gould Field at 1:00 PM with pre-game at 12:45 on 1270 and 92.3. The Saints now sit at 26-24 overall on the 2024 season with a KJCCC record at 14-13 which puts them as the sixth seed entering the final week of the regular season.