Saints drop doubleheader to Beavers

LIBERAL, Kan. – The Seward County Community baseball team were swept in a doubleheader by Pratt Community College, 6-1 and 10-4, on Thursday at Brent Gould Field. The Saints fell to 16-14 in the Jayhawk West and 25-24 overall.

The Saints conclude the series and end the regular season series at Pratt at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

GAME ONE

The Saints fell behind early and the bats stayed quiet in the opening game loss.

Seward had plenty of opportunities to score runs, but could not get the key hit. The Saints left 10 runners on base for the game.

Pratt jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning and that would prove to be enough against the struggling Seward offense.

Seward cut the deficit in half in the third inning at 2-1, but could have gotten more. Cruz Shope started the inning off with a single and Zane Alexander followed with a walk. Cayde Ward followed by grounding into a double play, but Benny Ayala followed and came through with a single to drive home Alexander.

The Beavers answered right back with four runs in the fourth to put away the game at 6-1.

The Saints threatened in the fourth and fifth innings, getting two runners on with one out, but could not produce the big hit and came up empty on the scoreboard.

Tanner King (6-3) allowed six runs, four earned, on six hits, struck out seven and walked three over seven innings in suffering the complete-game loss. It was King's first defeat since March 15 against Cloud County.

Shope and Ayala each went 2-for-4 and Joe Kuhn added another hit to account for the five Seward hits.

GAME TWO

The Saints were down big and could not climb out of the hole in the game two loss.

Pratt scored seven times in the second inning and never looked back. The Beavers were helped by the Saints in the inning with a run-scoring hit by pitch and a two-run error to account for three of the seven runs.

Wyatt Grant provided most of the offense for Seward with a sacrifice fly in the second and a two-run double in fourth. Cayde Ward and Owen Martin also had two hits each for the Saints.

The Beavers led 8-3 after four innings and added single runs in the sixth and eighth innings before the Saints scored a run in the ninth for a 10-4 final.

Cole Evans (2-2) struggled in the loss, allowing nine runs, five earned, on six hits, struck out seven, walked three and hit two batters over six innings. Steven Craddock relieved Evans, giving up an unearned run on hit, striking out six, walking two and hitting a batter over three innings.