2-1A state baseball day one recap

GREAT BEND, Kan. (Catch it Kansas) - Most of the higher seeds advanced on the first day of the Class 2-1A State Baseball tournament held at the Great Bend Sports Complex in Great Bend.

In the first game of the day, Crest held off a late rally from St. Mary’s Colgan to win 5-3.

The Lancers scored two runs in the first inning and added three more in the third.  St. Mary’s Colgan got on the board with a pair of runs in the fifth inning.  They tacked on a third run in the sixth inning.

St. Mary’s Colgan went one-two-three with a strikeout, pop fly, and a pitcher to first ground out in the top of the seventh.

Crest’s Trevor Church threw a complete game with 94 pitches.  He gave up six hits and three runs, two earned.  He walked one batter and tossed seven strikeouts.

The top-seeded Lancers remain undefeated with a 24-0 record.  St. Mary’s Colgan ends their season 9-13.

The second game of the day saw the only lower seed advance after fifth-seeded Little River rallied for four runs in the seventh inning to defeat fourth seed Elkhart.

Little River’s Braden Young started the game on the hill and started his day off roughly in the bottom of the first.  He gave up a double and a single to the first two Elkhart batters.  The following two batters were both hit by a pitch to score the first Wildcat run.  The fifth Wildcat batter drew a walk to score the second run of the inning.  The third run came on a two-out fielder’s choice.

Elkhart added a fourth run in the bottom of the fourth inning.

In the top of the fifth, a one-out walk scored the first run of the day for Little River.   A single by the next batter scored the second run.

Elkhart responded with another run in the bottom of the fifth to try and preserve their lead.

Little River added another run to their total in the sixth.

Going into the top of the seventh, Little River trailed 5-3.  The first two batters reached base with a single and a walk.  Then Kaden Schafer cleared the bases with a triple to right field to tie the game at five runs all.  Logan Renken hit a one-out single to center to bring Schafer home.  Renken would score on an error by the Elkhart catcher to cap the four-run rally.

Braden Young went out to the mound in the bottom of the seventh to try and hold the lead.  The first batter reached first on a single.  Young then hit the next batter to put a pair of runners on base.  The third batter popped up a ball to center field for the first out.  Young then struck out the next batter.  At that point, he had thrown 108 pitches and reached his maximum for the game.  Logan Renken came in and struck out the final batter to seal the victory.

Little River advances to take on Crest in the first semifinal on Friday.  Elkhart’s season ends with a 19-5 record.

Mission Valley advanced with a 10-0 run-rule five-inning victory over Whitewater-Remmington.

Mission Valley scored at least one run in every inning but the second.  They ended the first inning with four runs on the board.  In the third, they added two more.  The fourth saw one more run go to their total.  They finished the fifth inning, and the game by scoring three in the fifth.

Mission Valley’s pitcher, Carter Phillips threw 75 pitches over the five innings and only gave up one hit and walked two batters.  Phillips struck out nine Whitewater-Remmington batters.

Whitewater-Remmington’s season ends with a 15-9 record.

The last game of the day saw Valley Falls defeat West Elk 4-1 to advance to the semifinals.

After a scoreless first inning, Valley Falls got on the board with two runs in the bottom of the second inning.

West Elk would pull one run back in the top of the third.

Neither team plated a run in the fourth inning.

Valley Falls used an Avery Gatzemeyer double to score two runs in the bottom of the fifth to extend their lead.

The three-run advantage was enough for the Dragons to move on to the semifinals and face Mission Valley in the second game on Friday.

West Elk sees their season come to a close with a 17-7 record.

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