Saints Split Day/Night Twinbill with Northeastern

The Seward County Saints returned home to Brent Gould Field Friday for a day/night doubleheader against visiting Northeastern, splitting the twinbill with the Plainsmen on a 6-3 win in game one and an 18-12 loss in game two to begin their four game set. 

Northeastern took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the 1^st, but Seward quickly answered with a two out, two run double from Trent Powell to give the Saints a 2-1 lead. 

A two run bomb by Northeastern's JT Patterson put the Plainsmen back in front 3-2 in the 3^rd, but again, Seward answered with an RBI infield single from Jared Hasik to knot the score at 3. 

Saints starter Jared Biddy settled down and gave them zeros in the 4^th and 5^th innings, allowing Seward to retake a lead on a two run home run from Addison Kaasch and another RBI single from Hasik to make it 6-3 after five. 

Biddy pitched around a leadoff double in the 6^th and handed the ball to West Reddell in the 7^th to shut the door and give Seward a 6-3 victory in game one. 

The Saints collected seven hits in the opener, getting two apiece from Powell and Hasik who each had two RBI's as well. Biddy earned his second win of the year by gutting through six innings, allowing five hits and three runs while fanning five.  Reddell retired all three batters he faced in the 7^th to earn his first save as a Saint. 

SEWARD COUNTY/NORTHEASTERN GAME ONE BOX SCORE

Game two was a shootout from the start as Northeastern scored four times in the top half of the 1^st and Seward answered with an eight spot.  The big blows for the Saints in the inning came off the bats of Law Greiner who cleared the bases with a triple and Jared Hasik who registered a pair of RBI hits in the frame to give Seward an 8-4 lead after a wild 1^st. 

Northeastern got a run back in the 3^rd to make it an 8-5 game and then erased the Saints lead with a five run 4^th to go in front 10-8. 

The Saints bats went cold after the big start as Northeastern remained in front 10-8 through five and then extended their lead to 15-8 off the Seward bullpen with a five run 6^th inning. 

Seward loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the 6^th, but were only able to score once, missing a big opportunity to remain behind 15-9. 

At stretch time it was still a 15-9 game when Seward plated two more to get back to within striking distance at 15-11 on RBI knocks from Cody Stineman and Trent Powell. 

Northeastern added three insurance runs in the 8^th with a bases clearing double with two outs to make it an 18-11 game and Seward would score just once more as the Plainsmen finished the night off with an 18-12 win to salvage the doubleheader split.

The game wasn't the prettiest for either side as the two combined for 22 walks and 10 errors in the contest.  The Plainsmen outhit Seward 14-11 in the nightcap, getting a four hit game from Patterson who also scored five runs.  Stineman led the Saints with three hits and three RBI's while Addison Kaasch had a pair of hits and three runs scored.  Saints starter Brian Tims lasted just 3 2/3 innings, allowing eight runs, five earned while Ethan Earhart took the loss out of the bullpen, yielding seven runs in just 1 2/3 innings pitched.   

SEWARD COUNTY/NORTHEASTERN GAME TWO

The Saints move to 3-5 with the split while Northeastern opens their season 1-1. 

The two teams will be back at it Saturday afternoon at Brent Gould Field in Liberal with a 1:00 doubleheader to wrap up the series.