Unlucky 14 For Seward in Wichita Heartbreaker
| Final (14) | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Coffeyville Community College | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 11 | 3 |
|
Seward County Community College | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 1 |
Bright and early Friday morning the Seward County Saints and Coffeyville Red Ravens were the first two of eight teams to hit the diamond at Lawrence Dumont Stadium in downtown Wichita for the 2015 Region VI Championship Tournament. The Saints and Ravens battled to a draw through 9 innings and remained deadlocked through 13 before Coffeyville broke through in the top half of the 14th thanks to a pair of Seward defensive miscues to take and blow open the lead before going on to win 7-2.
In a battle between the top seed from the Jayhawk West, Seward County, and the #4 seed from the Jayhawk East, Coffeyville, it was the Red Ravens getting the scoring going early on, putting together three 1st inning hits to scratch across a run to take an early 1-0 advantage.
The Saints stranded Brent Williams at second after a two out double in their half of the 1st and it looked like Coffeyville was at it again in the top half of the 2nd with a leadoff single but a good play at first base by Dillon Drury led to a double play for the Saints to keep it a 1-0 game after 1 ½.
After a 2nd inning goose egg for Seward on offense, Saints starter JB Olson began to settle inn on the mound, working a 1-2-3 top half of the 3rd and his offense finally rewarded his efforts in the bottom of the frame as Chad Kennedy walked, stole second, and later scored on a groundout by Brandon Urquizo to knot the score at 1.
Olson retired the Ravens in order again in the 4th and Seward had a chance to grab the lead in their half of the inning but stranded another runner in scoring position at innings end to keep it a 1-1 game.
For the third straight inning, Coffeyville couldn't manage a baserunner against the Saints ace in the 5th to keep the score tied at 1.
In the Seward half of the 5th it looked like they were in business as Jared Ledbetter singled to start the inning, but he was caught being greedy, trying to stretch the single into a double where he was thrown out to record the first out of the inning. It came back to cost the Saints later on as a Coffeyville error that would have scored Ledbetter, didn't, and at the end of the inning it remained a 1-1 game.
Olson started the 6th by retiring his 12th and 13th straight hitters before a walk allowed Coffeyville their first baserunner since the 2nd inning, but Olson remained red hot, stranding the duck on the pond to keep the score deadlocked at 1.
A two out double by Drury in the 6th set the Saints up for another scoring opportunity and this time they came through as Justin Graff-Rowe lined a single through the right side to score Drury from second and put Seward on top for the first time in the game 2-1.
Olson worked a quick top half of the 7th for Seward and it looked like the Saints were set to open their lead up after stretch time as they put runners on the corners with one out and then loaded the bases with two outs, but a sharply hit ground ball right at the Ravens shortstop ended the threat and kept Seward off the board.
In the 8th Olson got two outs on two pitches before winning a long battle with a strikeout to end the frame. Seward was unable to do anything with their half of the inning and the game zoomed to the 9th with the score still Seward 2 and Coffeyville 1.
Coffeyville finally broke through against Olson in the 9th when they needed it most, squeezing back to back singles through the Seward infield to put runners on the corners with nobody out. The Ravens used a sacrifice fly to score the run from third and the game headed to the bottom of the 9th tied once again, this time at 2.
Seward put a baserunner on in the bottom of the 9th, but once again couldn't come through with the big hit in clutch time and the game headed to extras knotted at 2.
Both teams bullpens were sharp in the 10th as Seward and Coffeyville were each retired in order to keep it a 2-2 game.
In the 11th Coffeyville threatened once again, putting two on with two out, but Seward reliever Jakob Hernandez made the pitch when he needed two, getting a flyout to end the threat and keep the game tied at 2.
Each team stranded a runner in their next two at bats and after 13 complete innings of play, nothing was decided as the score remained deadlocked at 2.
Coffeyville opened the 14th by putting runners on first and third with one out. The Ravens attempted what looked like a failed squeeze attempt, but the Saints couldn't hang on to the bunt and Coffeyville would score an unearned run to take a 3-2 lead. A double down the line plated another Coffeyville run to make it 4-2 and Seward's second defensive miscue of the inning allowed the Ravens to extend their half of the frame where they eventually scored three more times to blow the game open to 7-2.
After the knockout blow, the Saints couldn't recover, going down in order in their half of the 14th to fall 7-2.
The Saints left 13 runners on base in the loss as Coffeyville out hit them 11-9 on the morning. In what could be his last start as a Saint, JB Olson dealt 9 solid innings for Seward, allowing 6 hits and 2 runs while striking out 5 to push his yearly innings total over 100. Hernandez was tagged with the loss after coming out of the Saints bullpen with 4 stellar innings of relief. He ended up giving up 4 hits and 2 earned runs in 4 1/3 innings of work, striking out 6 Raven hitters. Williams and Ledbetter were the only Seward players to have multiple hits in the loss as Williams went 2 for 6 with a double and Ledbetter was 2 for 5 with a pair of singles.
The loss drops the Saints to 34-24 on the year and puts them in the toughest of positions in making a run to the Region VI Title. Coffeyville improves to 29-30 overall with the win and is one of four unbeaten teams at the end of day one.
In a while day of competition at the tournament, arguably the top four teams going into the weekend were all defeated on Friday, sending Seward, #4 Johnson County, #18 Neosho County, and #1 Cowley all to the losers bracket. The Saints draw the 4th ranked Cavaliers Saturday at 10:00 in the first elimination game of the tournament.