By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
After rolling to a 17-7 six-inning win over Washburn Rural in the first-game of Friday's non-league twinbill, Seaman's baseball team failed to capitalize on several opportunities to put the nightcap away.
Washburn Rural senior Ty Weber (right) attempts to put a tag on Seaman sophomore Max Huston in Friday's doubleheader. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Seaman senior Kiernan Meredith bunts the ball during Friday's non-league doubleheader against Washburn Rural. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
But after seeing Rural rally from 7-4, 8-5 and 9-6 deficits to tie the game in the top of the seventh, Trent Oliva's Vikings came up with the clincher in the bottom of the seventh, with junior Kaiden Griffin delivering a two-out walkoff single to give Seaman a 10-9 win and a sweep of the home doubleheader.
"We felt like some things weren't going our way,'' Oliva said. "We were ahead after the first inning but it always felt like it was a tie game or we were one down. But we were able to keep the lead the whole time until the seventh and just battled through some adversity the whole game.
"Give credit to Washburn Rural because they put the pressure on us, but we were able to answer the call at the end of the game.''
Washburn Rural was within one strike of forcing extra innings before Griffin put a ball in the hole between first and second to score junior Holden Finley, who walked.
"In that situation (Griffin) has two strikes, with the bases loaded and two outs and the goal there for us is to put the ball in play and see what happens and that's exactly what he did and it went our way that time,'' Oliva said.
After leading throughout the first game after opening up a 10-1 lead through four innings, Seaman had a much tougher time putting winless Washburn Rural away in the second game.
Washburn Rural jumped out to a 3-0 second-game advantage in the top of the first when senior Ty Weber smacked a three-game home run, his second of the day.
Seaman answered with a four-spot in the bottom of the first as senior Kiernan Meredith delivered a two-run single and Griffin also plated a run with a single.
The Vikings broke a 4-4 tie with three runs in the second and Seaman added single runs in the third and fourth to go up 9-6.
But Washburn Rural cut its deficit to one run in the fifth after senior Kyle Walker tripled and scored, Weber doubled in a run and senior Adam Johnson had a run-scorring sacrifice fly.
After a hit batsman and a Seaman error put Rural in position, senior Dayten Smoot delivered a sacrifice to drive home Walker with the game-tying run in the top of the seventh.
Seaman loaded the basis with one out in the bottom of the inning, but Rural relief pitcher Kaleb Wellshear recorded a strikeout for the second out before Griffin ended things with his clutch hit.
Sophomore Max Huston, the winning pitcher in Game 1, had three singles in the second game and reached base a fourth time on an error while scoring three runs.
Griffin's game-winning hit was his third of the game while junior Jack Unruh contributed a run-scoring triple.
Meredith, who relieved starter Scout Jellison in the fourth inning of the second game, picked up the pitching win while senior reliever Drew Florence was the tough-luck loser after coming on in the fourth and keeping the Junior Blues in the hunt.
Sophomore catcher David Dobbs had three hits, including a pair of doubles, for Seaman in the first game while Huston also had a double.
Weber and junior Branton DeWeese both homered for Rural in the opener while Walker had a double and Wellshear and senior Adam Johnson tripled.
Friday's losses dropped Washburn Rural, third in Class 6A last season, to 0-6 on the season, including four losses by one or two runs, but Junior Blues coach Jay Mastin said he has confidence that his team can turn its fortunes around.
"We just need to make one more play here, one more play there,'' Mastin said. "We're waiting for things to kind of snowball in a positive way for us.
"We're a good team, we have a lot of talent and we're going to keep fighting hard and put ourselves in situations where we get those breaks to go our way.''
FIRST GAME
SEAMAN 17, WASHBURN RURAL 7
Washburn Rural 010 042 -- 7 8 4
Seaman 414 143 -- 17 12 1
Sharshel, M. Bettis (3), Rea (6) and Johnson. Huston, H. Finley (5) and Dobbs. W -- Huston. L -- Sharshel. 2B -- Washburn Rural: Walker. Seaman: Huston, Dobbs 2. 3B -- Washburn Rural: Wellshear, Johnson. HR -- Washburn Rural: Weber, DeWeese.
SECOND GAME
SEAMAN 10, WASHBURN RURAL 9
Washburn Rural (0-6) 311 120 1 -- 9 7 2
Seaman (5-0) 431 100 1 -- 10 10 2
S. Bettis, Florence (4), Wellshear (7) and Johnson. Jellison, Meredith (4) and Dobbs. W -- Meredith. L -- Florence. 2B -- Washburn Rural: Weber. 3B -- Washburn Rural: Walker. Seaman -- Unruh. HR -- Washburn Rural: Weber.
