IT'S GAMEDAY AT BRENT GOULD FIELD: Seward County vs. Northeastern Baseball

This weekend at Brent Gould Field in Liberal , the Empire Conference's NortheasternPlainsmen roll into town to take on the Jayhawk Conference's Seward County Saints in a nonconferenceseries. Former Saint Bryan Shepherd leads his Northeastern squad into battle totake on his former coach Galen McSpadden in a four game set this Saturday and Sunday.As usual with these two hooking up at this time in the season just about every year, weatherplayed a factor in last years series. The Saints and Plainsmen only managed to get their Saturdaydouble header in before the weather hit with the two teams splitting the twinbill. In gameone it was JB Olson shutting down the Plainsmen bats in a 4 hit complete game shutout as theSaints rolled 7-0. Jared Ledbetter collected 3 hits for Seward in the win while Justin Graff-Rowedrove home 3. Game two was an entertaining affair as the two combined for 30 hits and neededextra innings to settle the score where Northeastern put up a four run 10th frame to beat theSaints 9-5. Ledbetter again had 3 hits for Seward to lead the way while 7 of the 9 Plainsmenstarters recorded a knock in the victory.The Saints come into the weekend at 2-3 on the year after dropping their opener to McCookand splitting a four game set in Dallas against Galveston. In the Galveston series, the Saintswon the two middle games, giving Head Coach Galen McSpadden his 1,166th and 1,167th careerwins, pushing him past Dr. Val McLean and into the top spot on the Jayhawk Conference'sall-time coaching wins list. To pick up those wins, the Saints got a pair of gems from sophomorerighthander Adam Keller and sophomore southpaw Jakob Hernandez. Keller went the distancein game two, allowing just 6 hits while striking out 8 and Hernandez was untouchable in gamethree, throwing a complete game shutout while striking out 15 in a 6-0 Seward win.Northeastern sees the field for the first time this weekend after their season opening serieswas weathered out in Utah. The Plainsmen are an extremely inexperienced bunch with 26freshman listed on their roster this season. However, Northeastern returns one of the bestlefthanders around in 2016 as Kansas State signee Chase Dunker anchors their pitching staff.