Phil Lee
LIBERAL, Kan. – The Seward County Community College men’s baseball team earned a split with Hutchinson Community College, dropping the opener, 10-7, and winning the second game in a run-rule in seven innings, 16-6, Thursday at Brent Gould Field.
The Saints earned their first conference win of the season, improving to 1-5 in the Jayhawk West and moved to 14-15 overall. Seward wraps up the series at Hutchinson with games at 1 and 3 p.m. on Saturday.
GAME ONE
Seward could not hold on to the lead late and wasted a strong outing by starting pitcher Braden Whipple.
Hutchinson struck first with single runs in the first two innings to open a 2-0 lead, but Whipple hunkered down after that, blanking the Blue Dragons for the next three innings and giving the Saints the opportunity to rally.
Ryan Todd had an RBI single in the third inning and Brooks Barber drove in the run with a single in the fourth to tie the game at 2-2. The Saints took a 3-2 advantage on a Hayden Ramage run-scoring single in the fifth inning.
The Blue Dragons came back and took advantage of Seward defensive lapses and scored five unearned runs in the sixth inning to open a 7-3 lead. Hutchinson added three more runs in the seventh to ice the game.
Seward put a four-spot in the bottom of the seventh, highlighted by a Blaine Chancy solo homer, but it was too little, too late.
Whipple allowed two runs, one earned, on four hits, struck out one and walked six over five innings for the no-decision.
John Langehenning took the loss, giving five unearned, struck out one and walked one in two-thirds of an inning.
The Saints hammered out 13 hits with Colton Rowan, Chancy, Todd, Barber and Ramage each with two hits.
GAME TWO
Brooks Barber and Blaine Chancy each drove in five runs as Seward pounded out 17 hits to cruise a run-rule win in seven innings.
Hutchinson opened with a run in the first inning, but that would be it’s only lead of the game. Barber answered back in the bottom of the inning with a three-run blast to give Seward a 3-1 lead.
The Blue Dragons narrowed the gap to 3-2 in the top of the second, but the Saints answered back with another three-run inning, keyed by RBI doubles from Barber and Chancy, to begin pull away.
Seward followed that with a five-run third inning and added a four-run fifth to put the game out of reach.
The Saints scored a single run in the sixth to expand the advantage to 10 and a scoreless seventh by Blue Dragons put the nail in the coffin for the run-rule win.
Barber went 3-for-4 with four runs scored and Chancy went 4-for-5 with two runs scored. Ryan Todd added three hits and three RBI, Kotaro Wakui had 2-for-4 with two RBI and Nathan Hopkins collected three hits and scored four runs for the Saints.
Seward starter Jackson Phillips was the benefactor of the run support and helped a depleted pitching staff with a gutsy performance. Phillips allowed six runs on 10 hits, struck out four and walked none over 5 1/3 innings to earn the win.
Koshiro Ohno finished up with one-hit ball over the 1 2/3 scoreless innings, striking out two and walking one.
Seward plays at Hutchinson Saturday at 1pm on 1270 and 92.3 with Saints Dugout Show at 12:45.
