2-1A State Baseball Day One Recap

GREAT BEND, Kan. (Catch it Kansas) - Three of the four top seeds in the Class 2-1A State Baseball tournament advance to play in the semi-finals on Friday after the first round Thursday.

The top-seed Little River Indians fell in the first game 12-5 against the eighth-seed St. Mary’s-Colgan Panthers.

St. Mary’s-Colgan jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Little River scored two runs in the bottom of the third to halve the Panther lead 4-2.

The Panthers added four more runs in the top of the fifth but then allowed three more Indians runs in the bottom half of the inning.

St. Mary’s-Colgan added two runs each in the sixth and seventh to seal another trip to the State Semifinals. It will be their 13th Class 2-1A Semifinal since 2000.

The next game saw an extra innings marathon with fourth seed Onaga walking off with the 8-7 10th inning victory over Medicine Lodge.

After a scoreless first inning, Medicine Lodge scored a single run in the second inning. Onaga responded in the bottom of the third with three runs. Both teams plated two runs each in the fifth inning.

Looking to extend their season, Medicine Lodge’s Jace Cox hit a hard ground ball to the right field. The single scored Alexavier Nittler from third. Onaga’s Zach Fisher had an error charged to him that allowed Carter Cunningham to score. The two runs tied the game 7-7.

In the top of the 10th inning, Medicine Lodge scored two runs. Onaga needed two to keep the game going, and three to win it. Keagan Venneberg hit a two-out fly ball double to center to score Colby Fordham from second base to score the third run of the half-inning and secure the walk-off victory.

Onaga will meet St. Mary’s-Colgan in the 11:00 AM semifinal game.

After starting approximately two hours later than the posted time, Elkhart only needed an hour and fifteen minutes to defeat Kansas City Christian 2-0. More impressively, Elkhart ace pitcher Kage Ralstin pitched a complete game no-hitter.

Ralstin threw 99 total pitches facing 24 batters. He struck out 12 of those batters and allowed no hits and only one walk.

Ralstin also had two hits that batted in Cesar Gomez twice to score the Wildcats’ pair of runs.

In the final game of the first day, Marion used a seven-run fourth inning to pull away from the Sedgwick Cardinals.

This was the third meeting for the two teams this year. Marion won both games of a doubleheader on April 4th, 16-1 and 3-2.

Sedgwick put the first run on the board in the third inning. Marion quickly responded with three runs of their own.

The bottom of the fourth saw the Warriors add seven more runs to their total.

Trailing 10-1, Sedgwick started to get batters on and moved them home. They added four more runs, but could not keep the rally going.

Marion will face Elkhart in the 1:15 PM semifinal. It will be a rematch from the 2019 State Championship game. Elkhart won that game 3-2.

Copyright 2023 Catch it Kansas. All rights reserved.