Williams Breaks NJCAA Doubles Record as Saints Pummel Panthers
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Seward County Community College | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 14 | 22 | 1 |
|
Neosho County Community College | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
In a do or die situation Sunday afternoon at Hudson Field in Chanute, the Seward County Saints gave the proverbial monkey on their back a nice boot as they eliminated the two time defending Region VI Champion Neosho County Panthers with a 14-2 run rule pummeling to advance to the Region VI Championships next weekend in Wichita.
Things couldn't have gotten off to much of a better start for the Saints as they scored four times in the bottom of the 1st inning on RBI knocks from Kevin Connolly, Brandon Rix, Jordan Leinweber, and Connor Smith to take an early 4-0 lead.
After rough outings in each of his last three starts, Saints starter Keenan Hall settled in early on on Sunday, working a quick 1-2-3 bottom half of the 1st inning against the powerful Panther lineup to keep the Saints in front 4-0.
Seward was right back at it on the offensive end in the 2nd as Jake Fuller singled to lead off the inning to get things going and later in the inning the Saints scored a run on a double from Brent Williams to make it 5-0. The double for Williams did more than just give the Saints their fifth run of the game as it broke the NJCAA Division I all-time record for doubles in a season which is now held by the Saints freshman with 36. The record stood for 25 years after being set by Chris Bernhardt of Northeastern Oklahoma A&M in 1989. With two runners in scoring position and one out after the double, Connolly lifted a sac fly to add another run for Seward and after an inning and half it was Seward 6 and Neosho 0.
After Hall tossed another zero in the bottom of the 2nd inning, the Saints added two more in the 3rd, getting an RBI single from Fuller and a two out RBI single from Bryson Allen to put the Saints up 8-0.
Neosho finally got on the board in the 3rd as they loaded the bases with one out for the nation's best hitter in Connor Goedert, but Hall allowed just a sacrifice fly before getting a strikeout to end the inning to limit the Panthers to just one run to keep the Saints up 8-1.
Seward answered right back in the 4th, using a one out hit batter and a double to put two in scoring position with one out before a sac fly from Smith drove a run home to make it a 9-1 game.
The Neosho 4th was almost a repeat of their half of the 3rd inning as they once again threatened a big inning as they loaded the bases with just one out, but again Hall came up big, limiting them to one run on a sac fly to keep the Saints comfortably in front 9-2.
That seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back for the Panthers. Seward scored another run in the 5th on an RBI groundout from Williams and Hall tossed a 1-2-3 bottom half of the inning before Seward added two more in the 6th to blow the game open to 12-2.
Hall began finding his groove after the Saints lead swelled. He struck out a pair as he retired the Neosho side in order in the 6th and Seward got RBI hits from Rix and Smith in the top half of the 7th to open up a 14-2 advantage.
With the run rule now staring the home team in the eyes, Hall remained aggressive. The Seward sophomore retired his sixth, seventh, and eighth straight hitters in the bottom of the 7th, wrapping up a 14-2 run rule win for the guys in green.
The Saints scored in every inning of the 14-2 win, a feat in which Seward's 33rd year Head Coach Galen McSpadden says he doesn't remember happening ever before. The Saints slugged out 22 hits against Panther pitching while Hall yielded just 5 hits to the heavy hitting Neosho lineup. Sophomores Bryson Allen and Jake Fuller both stepped up big in the victory as each had 4 hits and the two combined to score 4 runs and drive in 3. Smith finished his best game in recent memory 2 for 4 with 3 RBI's and Connolly was 2 for 4 with 2 RBI's and 2 runs scored in the middle of the Seward order. Hall had his best start of the year when the Saints needed it most, going all 7 innings of the victory, allowing just 5 hits and 2 runs while striking out 5 to improve to 4-5 on the year.
The Saints improve to 31-27 on the year while Neosho's season ends at 40-19. Seward moves on to the Region VI Championships in Wichita which begin on Friday where the Saints will take on rival Hutchinson in the 7:00 prime time game at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium on the opening day of the tournament. The double elimination tournament will run Friday through Tuesday with the championship game sending a winner to the JUCO World Series.