Saints Take Two at Redlands on Opening Day

Jay Daubenberger

Baseball season has finally arrived in the state of Kansas as the Seward County Saints made the trip to Oklahoma to start their 2024 season against the Redlands Cougars for a doubleheader that saw SCCC go 2-0 on the day with a 6-3 win in game one and a run rule win of 12-2 in five innings in game two to go undefeated on opening day.

It was the Cougars who got on the scoreboard first with a run scored off an error in the first inning, but the Saints answered back in fourth as a single from Keagon Pitton and Mason Gilbert led to a run each to move ahead 2-1 over Redlands. A run by the Cougars in the bottom of the fourth locked the game back up at 2-2 before a three-run inning in the top of the sixth allowed Seward County to retake their lead as Connor Raney hit a sacrifice fly to score a run while a double from Cameron Cartwright allowed Gilbert and Nathan Hopkins to run to home and put the Saints ahead 5-2. A big hit out to left field from Hopkins led to another SCCC run to increase their lead to 6-2 and despite a late score from Redlands in the bottom of the seventh, Seward County was able to clinch a 6-3 win to start their season.

Game two was full of highlights for the Saints as they were able to finish off the Cougars in only five innings. Raney got the scoring started in the top of the second with a single fly to right field to drive in Pitton while Hopkins was walked by the Redland pitcher to allow an easy score by Sergio Castro to put SCCC ahead 2-0. A ground ball by Pitton in the top of the third led to another Saints run to put them up by three scores and a ground ball from Brock Sundlie batted in another two for Seward County to move in front 5-0 before two runs from the Cougars in the bottom of the third brought the Saints lead down to 5-2 entering the fourth. The top of the fifth showed off the firepower for SCCC as Rowan doubled on a line drive down the center of the field to bring Cartwright back home to put another score on the board for Seward County with Pitton singling on a ground ball that brought Pitton in to score also to increase their lead to 7-2. Redland was forced to make a pitching change to try and stop the bleeding, but the first pitch by their reserve to Kotaro Wakui resulted in a three-run homer to right field that brought the score to 10-2 and all but sealed the deal for the Saints. Another two runs in the top of the fifth put the run rule in affect as Seward County ended game two in five innings with a 12-2 win over the Cougars.

Pitton was a difficult out in game one as he went three for four at bat, singling in the fourth and seventh innings while doubling in the sixth. Elias Herrera earned the win for the Saints, striking out four batters in 3.1 innings played while Brian Luna Alvarez struck out a eight batters in 3.2 innings.

SCCC was firing on all cylinders in game two thanks to Wakui and Juarez who each hit a home run to combine for five runs batted in. Pitton went a perfect 2/2 at bat while scoring three runs for the Saints. Trent Gerber earned the win for Seward County in their second game of the day with 5 strikeouts in 3.0 innings of action.

Seward County begins their season with a 2-0 record after day one of the 2024 season and will now take on the Redland Cougars in another double header tomorrow with the start times scheduled for 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM respectfully.