Saints Go Deep Four Times In Split With Clarendon

With the wind blowing out to left, balls were leaving Brent Gould Field at a quick pace Wednesday afternoon as Seward County took on Clarendon in non-conference action.  In game one, it was the Bulldogs using the long ball to their advantage in a 7-3 win while Seward cranked three home runs in game two of the twinbill to win 10-0 in run rule fashion to split the doubleheader. 

The Saints hurt themselves early on in game one, hitting two batters and walking another in a four run 2^nd inning for Clarendon to allow the Bulldogs to jump out to a 4-0 lead. 

Seward struck back in their half of the inning, getting a two run missile off the bat of Dillon Drury that cleared the left center field fence for a home run to cut the Bulldog lead to 4-2. 

The Saints put two on with one out in the 3^rd as they looked to inch closer to the Bulldogs, but they left both runners on the sacks as the inning ended and it remained a 4-2 game. 

Seward had traffic on the bases once again in the 4^th as Brandon Urquizo rapped a two out RBI single to make it a one run game, but the Saints left two runners on for the second time in the game and remained down 4-3 into the 5^th. 

Seward reliever Nathan Dockery pitched out of a jam for the Saints in the top of the 5^th, striking out a pair to leave two Clarendon runners on base at innings end, but a baserunning blunder by the Saints again thwarted their threat at tying up the game in the bottom half and Clarendon clung to a 4-3 lead as the teams went to the 6^th. 

Clarendon added three more runs in the 6^th, two coming off of a two out, two run home run to make it 7-4 and Seward never threatened again, watching all six hitters in the 6^th and 7^th inning get retired to finish the game out as the Bulldogs took the opener 7-3. 

Clarendon outhit Seward 9-7 in the game, but Saints pitching walked three and hit three Bulldog batters in the contest.  Urquizo finished 2 for 4 with an RBI for the Saints while Drury had the other two RBI's with his 2^nd inning shot.  Grant Glaze took the loss on the mound for Seward, falling to 0-3 on the season as he allowed 7 hits and 4 runs in 4 innings of work, Dockery threw 3 innings out of the bullpen, allowing 2 hits and 3 runs while striking out 6. 

SEWARD COUNTY/CLARENDON GAME ONE BOX SCORE

Game two got off to a much better start for the Saints as starting pitcher Jakob Hernandez worked a solid 1-2-3 top half of the 1^st and the offense got him some early run support with a pair of runs on RBI's from Brent Williams and Brandon Rix to grab the early 2-0 lead. 

It remained a 2-0 game into the bottom of the 3^rd when the game was halted by lightning for 30 minutes.  After the delay the Bulldogs came out sloppy, allowing a leadoff double to Alex White and then allowing White to score on a failed pickoff attempt and then unneeded throw home to make it 3-0 Saints. 

Hernandez continued to cruise, not allowing his first hit until the 4^th while striking out the side in the 5^th to keep it a 3-0 game. 

As the wind picked up, so did the Saints bats in the bottom half of the 5^th.  White singled in front of a massive two run bomb by Chad Kennedy over the trees in left field to make it 5-0 and Williams went deep behind him on a 2-2 pitch to quickly stretch the Seward advantage to 6-0.  With two outs in the inning Seward drew a pair of walks and Justin Graff-Rowe blooped in a double to score the Saints fourth run of the inning to make it a 7-0 game.  Two pitches later Josh Nicol unloaded on a 1-0 offering, blasting it over the left field wall for a three run home run to end the game in a 10-0 run rule win for the Saints. 

The Saints finished the game with 8 hits, 3 of them home runs in the victory.  Williams was 2 for 3 with a home run and 2 RBI's while White was 2 for 2 with 3 runs scored at the top of the Saints lineup.  Hernandez was sharp on the hill for Seward, going the distance and allowing just 2 hits while striking out 6 to improve to 2-1 on the year. 

SEWARD COUNTY/CLARENDON GAME TWO BOX SCORE

The split takes the Saints to 26-19 on the year while Clarendon moves to 18-25. 

Next up for the Saints is their most important weekend of 2015 thus far as they host the Butler Grizzlies in a matchup of two of the three teams tied for first place in the Jayhawk West Conference with two weekends to go.  The Saints and Grizzlies will get the series underway at 1:00 Saturday at Brent Gould Field in Liberal and will play another 1:00 doubleheader on Sunday beginning at 1:00.