Jay Daubenberger

Day one of the Region VI Tournament was a tale of two games for Seward County as they dominated game one 13-0 against the Trojans before collapsing 16-0 in a loss to Butler. On day two the Lady Saints took the field against Dodge City where despite a three-run homer in the seventh by Alyna Frazier to stay in reach, Seward County saw their 2024 season come to an unfortunate end.

SCCC was put in a four-score hole early in the first inning against the Conqs but held them to only two more runs the rest of the game defensively despite a poor offensive game in the first five innings that saw Seward County fall behind 6-0. Brooklyn Castagnetta was able to get the Lady Saints on the board finally in the bottom of the sixth with an RBI single while Anberlin O’Dell in the bottom of the seventh hammered out a base hit of her own to drive in Aaliyah Gutierrez who added two more stolen bases to her all-time record before heading home and making the score 6-2.

Seward County needed a big-time swing with two on base to help them climb back and Frazier did just that as she stepped to the plate and obliterated the ball with her heavy swing as it sailed out to left field for three more scores in favor of SCCC to make it a 6-5 game. The Lady Saints however could not make another big play after that as a final out resulted in the end of Seward County’s 2024 season as they fell to Dodge City on day two.

Despite falling on the second day of the Region VI Tournament, the Lady Saints recorded their first winning season since 2018 with a 26-23 overall record while going 19-13 in KJCCC action for a fifth-place finish in the regular season and grabbing a first-round win over the fourth seeded Colby Trojans. Gutierrez ends her Seward County career as the all-time stolen bases leader with 80 while also breaking the single season record with 46.