Seward Softball Sweeps McCook

The Seward County Lady Saints swept their way to their 9th and 10th victories on the season Friday afternoon at Lady Saints Field in Liberal, defeating visiting McCook 10-2 and 8-0 in a pair of run rules to push their winning streak to five.

The Lady Saints jumped on the board early in game one, getting a pair of 1st inning runs on an RBI single from Kristyna Garcia and a wild pitch to take a 2-0 lead after one.

Seward’s defense cost them a pair of runs in the top of the 3rd, but the Lady Saints took the lead right back in the bottom half on an RBI single from Taylor Kathler to make it 3-2.

The Lady Saints blew things open in the 5th as Lexi Manyik lifted a towering three run home run over the left field wall to make it 6-2 and Macy Koontz scored later in the inning on a passed ball to put Seward up five, 7-2.

Seward finished the Indians off in the bottom of the 6th, getting an RBI single from Manyik and then an RBI single up the box from Garcia to put the nail in the coffin of a 10-2 Lady Saints win.

Seward outhit McCook 14-2 in the game and took advantage of 6 Indian errors. Garcia and Manyik led the way offensively for the Lady Saints as Garcia had 4 hits in the win while Manyik drove home 4 runs. Monique Ashley earned her fifth win of the year in the circle, going the distance while allowing just 2 hits and 2 runs and striking out 6.

SEWARD COUNTY/MCCOOK GAME ONE BOX SCORE<http://www.sewardsaints.com/sports/sball/2016-17/boxscores/20170217_ny5f.xml>

In game two, Koontz doubled to lead off the Seward 1st and later scored to give the Lady Saints a quick 1-0 lead.

Koontz was at it again in the 3rd, ripping a two run single to stretch the Lady Saints lead to 3-0.

Seward scored twice more in the 3rd on RBI knocks from Leena Mortensen and Manyik to make it a 5-0 game and that was more support than Lady Saints starter Ruby Gonzalez would need on this day as she sailed through five untouched before Seward added three more in the 5th to close things out in an 8-0 run rule win.

Gonzalez allowed just two hits in the complete game shutout, improving to 4-0 on the year. The Lady Saints offense banged out 10 hits, getting 2 hits and 3 RBI’s from Koontz at the top of the lineup and 2 hits and 3 runs scored from Kathler at the bottom.

SEWARD COUNTY/MCCOOK GAME TWO BOX SCORE<http://www.sewardsaints.com/sports/sball/2016-17/boxscores/20170217_b5mq.xml>

Seward improves to 10-3 on the year with the victories while McCook’s slow start to the year continues at 2-10.

The Lady Saints will wrap up their six game homestand on Sunday morning at Lady Saints Field in Liberal, hosting Northeastern in an 11:00 am doubleheader.

Roy Allen