Lady Saints Fall in Opening Round of Region VI Tourney
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Seward County Community College | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 12 | 0 |
|
Dodge City Community College | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | X | 10 | 13 | 1 |
Collecting 12 hits, but leaving 10 runners on, the Seward County Lady Saints fell 10-5 to Dodge City in the opening round of the 2016 NJCAA Region VI Tournament Tuesday in El Dorado, putting themselves in an uphill battle to continue their season on Wednesday.
Dodge got the scoring going early and often, putting up three in their first at bats in the bottom of the 1st to quickly go ahead of the Lady Saints 3-0.
The Conqs added two more in the 3rd on three hits, extending their advantage to 5-0 as the teams went to the 4th.
Seward finally got something going in the 4th as Dodge couldn't handle a dropped third strike and the Lady Saints made them pay with a two out RBI double from Hannah Lopez to cut the Conq lead to 5-1.
After a quick 1-2-3 inning for Dodge in the bottom of the 4th, the Lady Saints were back at it in the 5th, putting two runners on in front of Brittany Corrales who launched a deep three run home run over the scoreboard in left to cut the Conq lead to 5-4.
Seward's momentum would be short lived though. Dodge answered right back with a crooked number of their own in the bottom half of the inning, using four hits and a pair of Seward walks to score five times to blow the game back open to 10-4.
A solo home run from Lopez in the 6th made it a 10-5 game and the Lady Saints looked like they were ready to keep the slugfest going as they got three straight two out singles to load the bases, but a foul out by Corrales to first ended the threat and effectively the Lady Saints chances for a comeback.
Seward loaded the bases again in the 7th, bringing the tying run as close as the on deck circle, but for the second straight inning left the bases loaded at innings end to finish off the game in a 10-5 Dodge City victory.
The Lady Saints finished with 12 hits in the loss while Dodge City had 13 knocks in the opening round victory for them. Kennedy Brunson led Seward at the top of the lineup with three hits and a pair of stolen bases while Lopez and Corrales each went deep, combining for all five of Seward's runs in the loss. Kelly Kearney was hit hard in the loss, falling to 14-13 on the year as she yielded 10 runs on 10 hits in just 4 1/3 innings of work. Alexis Cuellar entered in relief with 1 2/3 scoreless innings of work to finish the game off.
Seward falls to 26-31 on the year with the loss while Dodge improves to 20-21.
The loss puts Seward just one loss away from ending their season now while needing five straight wins to keep things going in 2016. The Lady Saints first elimination game will come Wednesday at 5:00 when they take on either Colby or Barton at East Park in El Dorado.