Saints Season Comes to a Close in First Round
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Seward County Community College | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 1 |
|
Johnson County Community College | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 11 | 1 |
Only twice in history have the Seward County Saints had to go on the road for the first round of the Region VI Tournament best of three series. The first two times they did so, they came out victorious. History did not repeat itself this weekend in Overland Park however as the Saints left the bases loaded in the 9th inning of a deciding game three against the Johnson County Cavaliers Sunday afternoon to fall 6-3 and see their 2016 season come to a disappointing end.
In a winner take all game three pushed up to Sunday morning, it was the Saints cracking the scoreboard first early on as Landon Vodka, getting a rare start, drove home a run with two outs in the Seward 2nd to give the Saints a 1-0 lead to get things going.
It remained a 1-0 game in favor of Seward to the 3rd when the Cavaliers answered. Johnson put together three straight hits to begin their half of the inning and got a groundout to score another to go in front 2-1.
Both teams went down in order in the 4th and the Saints couldn't do anything with a two out single in the 5th to keep it a 2-1 game.
Johnson extended their lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the 5th with their dose of small ball, needing just one hit to plate a run for the two run advantage.
The Cavs continued to build their cushion in the 6th, again aided by a Seward free pass, scoring a run to make it 4-1 before a double steal netted another tally to stretch their lead to 5-1.
The Saints offense continued to struggle in the 7th, getting their leadoff man on, but having him quickly erased on a double play in what turned into another 1-2-3 inning.
With two out and nobody on, a bean ball got the Cavs going in the bottom of the 7th and Johnson County would use a pair of singles to parlay the free pass into a run to push their lead to five at 6-1.
Seward went quietly in the 8th and Saints reliever held the Cavs scoreless in the bottom half to send the game to the 9th with the score still 6-1.
With their season on the line, the Saints made some noise in the 9th. Their first three hitters of the inning reached, including an RBI single from Logan Nethercot to cut the Johnson lead to 6-2. Later in the inning a Cav error allowed the Saints second run of the inning to come plateward making it a 6-3 game. After a pop out for the second out of the inning, Jared Ledbetter singled to keep the Saints alive and found himself at first as the tying run with the bases loaded and two outs in the frame. Seward's hopes of a comeback quickly died with a strikeout however and the Cavaliers celebrated on their home turf after closing out the 6-3 win to end the Saints season.
The Cavs outhit the Saints 11-9 in the contest. Seward got two hits each from Nethercot and Ledbetter playing in their final games in Saints green and white. Jared Biddy took the loss on the mound for the Saints, allowing nine hits and six runs, all earned in 6 2/3 innings to fall to 6-3 on the year. Castillo pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings to finish the game for Seward.
The Saints finish their season at 31-26, their lowest win total since the 1990 season. Seward also fails to get to the quarterfinal round of the Region VI Tournament for just the third time in the past 25 seasons. Johnson County improves to 42-17 and will join five other Jayhawk East teams in Wichita. The Jayhawk West had just two teams (Hutchinson, Garden City) advance past the first round.