Saints Complete Four Game Sweep Over Vernon

Jay Daubenberger

Liberal, Kansas – Yesterday Seward County took down Vernon in the first two games of the series and today they completed that sweep thanks to some heavy hitting by the Saints to help the green and white grab a 10-7 win in game three and a 12-11 win in game two off a fielder’s choice that allowed Sergio Castro to make his way home and complete the sweep for Seward County.

The Saints struck first in a big way with a six-run inning in the bottom of the second that all started with a double on a fly ball from Cameron Cartwright to drive in a pair of runs and later scored himself off a sacrifice fly from Connor Raney to put SCCC ahead 3-0. A line drive single from Todd Baffa drove in the fourth run of the day for the Saints and another double for Seward County by Trenton Rowan allowed Nathan Hopkins and Baffa to find their way home and take a 6-0 lead entering the third.

Vernon finally put themselves on the board with a pair of scores in the third to make the score 6-2 over the next few innings before SCCC managed to grab two runs of their own in the fifth with a home run bomb out to left field by Rowan and a few pitches later another big hit from Cartwright made its way beyond the fences to put the Saints ahead 8-2. The Chaps closed the gap to three in the sixth with three straight singles that drove in a run each to make the score 8-5 before a Rowan hit a big single of his own to drive Hopkins in thanks to a Vernon error and a ground out from Mason Hagel-Pitt brought Baffa in for the tenth score of the day for Seward County and although Vernon managed to score two more runs in the seventh, the Saints took game three 10-7 to secure a series win over the Chaps.

Game two started the opposite from the previous contest with Vernon scoring the first three runs of the game before Seward County was finally able to score in the third with Hopkins hitting a fly ball out to center to drive in Castro while Hopkins managed to make his way around the bases off a ground ball by Raney to cut the deficit to one at 3-2. Another pair of scores by the Chaps in the fourth put their lead back to three but the Saints once again responded behind Hopkins who was able to slug out a single to drive in a pair of runs from Wakui and Cartwright to bring Vernon’s lead down to 5-4 before stepping up to the plate once again in the seventh to knock out a home run to put SCCC ahead by one 6-5.

The eighth was a big inning for the Chaps who scored six runs in the top of the inning to take a five score lead 11-6 over the Saints to put the pressure on the home squad. Once again it was Hopkins who dominated for Seward County at the plate with his second home run of the day to cut the deficit back down to two 11-9. A double play from the Saints’ got a quick two outs for the Chaps before a clutch strikeout by Justin Demarco put it all in the hands of the hitting by SCCC in the bottom of the ninth. Castro locked the score up at 11-11 with a single on a fly ball out to left field to drive in a pair of runs before the MVP of the game stepped back up in Hopkins who grounded out into a fielder’s choice to drive in the game winning run to seal it 12-11 and complete the four-game sweep over Vernon.

Seward County now puts themselves two games above .500 with a 9-7 record in the 2024 season after completing the four-game series sweep against the Chaps of Vernon. The Saints will now be back on the road to take on the T-Birds of New Mexico before continuing their road stint against Trinidad State the following week.