Jay Daubenberger

Liberal, Kansas – After falling in their previous series, the Seward County Saints took the field at home for another big rivalry matchup with Garden City for a KJCCC series that saw Tyler Wilcox allow only two hits in game one as SCCC busted the Broncbusters in a run rule sweep to begin the series with a 2-0 lead.

Kotaro Wakui helped push the Saints in front to start game one and they never looked back for the rest of the day as he homered on a fly ball to right field to take a 2-0 lead. Even though Garden City put two on the board in the top of the fourth, Seward County added another four scores in the bottom of the inning to extend their lead to 6-2 thanks to multiple walks by the Broncbusters’ pitcher. Garden scored in the fifth on a solo home run, but Mason Hagel-Pitt matched with a home run in the Saints first at bat to start a barrage at the plate with Nathan Hopkins and Wakui each recording a two RBI double that eventually forced a run rule win with SCCC taking game one 13-3.

Seward County continued their hot streak entering game two with three early runs in the first that Garden City matched in the top of the second which locked the score up at 3-3. Cameron Cartwright grew the Saints lead back out to three with a three-run homer which Hagel-Pitt followed with another Seward County home run to make it 8-3. SCCC continued to grow their lead in the fourth and by the end of the inning the Saints reached run rule territory off a triple from Hagel-Pitt to make their lead 14-3 entering the fifth. A pair of doubles by Connor Raney and Todd Baffa drove in a few more runs for Seward County to make the final score 17-3 after seven innings to put the Saints ahead in the series 2-0.

SCCC now improves to 20-21 overall on the 2024 season while moving up in the KJCCC standings with an 8-10 record against Jayhawk opponents. Seward County will now finish off the series on the road in Garden City on Saturday for the final two games with game one beginning at 1:00 PM.