Saints Survive Windy Contest Against Clarendon With 5-4 Win
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Clarendon College | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 2 |
|
Seward County Community College | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 2 |
On a cold and blustery day Wednesday at Brent Gould Field in Liberal, the Seward County Saints blew a late lead, but were able to come back with a run in the bottom of the 8th inning to hang on to beat visiting Clarendon 5-4 in midweek action.
It didn't take the Saints long to get their bats going in this one as Seward scored three times in the bottom half of the 1st inning after Alec Isaac kept a ball fair down the right field line with the bases loaded for a double to give the guys in green a 3-0 lead after one inning of action.
The Saints added another tally in the 2nd as Nic Ricigliano singled to start the inning and later scored on an RBI groundout from Brandon Urquizo to put the Saints up 4-0.
Seward got solid pitching early on as Yates Sutton pitched a scoreless first before giving way to Grant Glaze out of the Saints bullpen who tossed four scoreless frames to keep it a 4-0 game in favor of the Saints into the 6th.
Clarendon played small ball in the 6th to pick up their first run of the game to cut the Saints lead to 4-1 and the Seward offense continued to scuffle in the bottom of the inning as they left a runner at third with less than one out to keep the score 4-1.
The Bulldogs made them pay in their next at bats, using back to back one out walks followed by an error on a bunt attempt to score two runs to make it a one run game at 4-3. Two pitches later an RBI single tied the game and that is the way the teams went to stretch time, knotted at 4.
Seward went down in order in the bottom of the 7th, but Saints reliever Chris Juracek settled down to toss a 1-2-3 frame of his own in the top of the 8th.
The Saints finally got their bats going again in the bottom of the 8th as Brent Williams skied a fly ball to right field that Clarendon couldn't corral and Williams motored around the bases all the way to third for his league leading fourth triple of the season. Williams scored on a wild pitch three pitches later and just like that the Saints were back in front 5-4.
Juracek picked up two quick outs to start the Clarendon 9th but ran into some trouble with a two out walk and a Saints error to put the tying and go-ahead runs on base. But Juracek collected himself and induced another ground ball, this one was handled properly by the Saints defense and Seward held on to win 5-4.
Seward pitching allowed just 3 hits to the Bulldogs who were coming off of a series against national power Howard in which they scored 43 runs in a four game set. Glaze picked up a no decision, but went 5 1/3 innings, allowing just 2 hits and 2 earned runs after departing. Juracek earned the win to improve to 2-3 on the year as he wrapped up the game tossing 2 2/3 innings and allowing just 1 hit and 1 unearned run while striking out 3. The Saints offense managed 8 hits in the win, getting 2 hit games from Williams, Dillon Drury, and leadoff man Alex White as well as a 3 RBI effort from Isaac.
The Saints improve to 13-17 on the year with the win while Clarendon falls to 10-21.
Seward will take the field again in non-conference action on Saturday and Sunday at Brent Gould Field in Liberal as they host Rose State in a three game series.