By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
Washburn University starter Casey Stewardfinished his six-inning outing without allowing a hit and striking out 10 Rogers State hitters while the Ichabod offense put up seven runs in the opening inning on the way to a 9-3 MIAA victory on Saturday afternoon at Falley Field.
Casey Steward pitched no-hit ball over six innings and struck out 10 in Washburn's 9-3 win over Rogers State Saturday. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics[
Washburn clinched the series win with Saturday's victory and will go for the sweep in its final home game of the regular season at 1 p.m. Sunday. The six Ichabod seniors will be recognized on the field 15 minutes prior to the first pitch.
Trying put itself in position for a second straight trip to the NCAA Tournament, the Ichabods (27-18 overall, 19-10 MIAA) have now won six of their last eight games.
"We go out and get two this weekend so far, so we're starting to get back to playing good baseball and finding a way to pitch it and taking care of opportunities,'' Ichabod coach Harley Douglas said. "This was definitely a week (five games on the week) that we needed to get some practice, get some opportunities, get some things that we could iron out and kind of get us moving forward.''
Washburn went through the batting order and then some in the first inning as the Ichabods scored seven runs on five hits and received four free bases.
Leadoff man Andrew Schmidtlein, a former Hayden standout, reached first after getting hit by a 2-2 pitch and then moved over to third on Cale Savage's single.
Savage stole second base to get into scoring position and with two outs, Ike Book brought in two runs with a single to left center.
Book stole second base and made it home on Easton Bruce's single through the right side.
Shane Morrow and Caden Bresslerdrew back-to-back walks to load the bases for Blake Scott, whose single brought in one run.
With the bases still loaded, Schmidtlein ripped a three-run double to center field to push the Ichabod lead to 7-0.
Steward retired the side in order in the third and fifth innings and still had not allowed a hit heading into the sixth.
In the top of the sixth inning with one out, the Rogers State batter struck out swinging but reached first base on the wild pitch.
The next two batters got on with walks, but Steward got his last two batters out with a strikeout and a foul popup to the catcher.
After a pitching change to start the seventh, the Hillcats (23-19, 11-18) got on the board with back-to-back home runs to erase the no-hitter and trim Washburn's lead to 7-2.
The Ichabods got those runs back in the bottom of the seventh.
Schmidtlein earned a one-out walk and advanced to second on Savage's infield single. Cal Watkins recorded an RBI single up the middle and Savage made it home on a failed pickoff attempt to put Washburn's lead at 9-2.
Rogers State added one final run in the ninth inning, hitting a leadoff pinch hit home run, before Washburn closed out the win with a 1-4-3 double play.
Washburn finished the game outhitting Rogers State, 11-4, and all 10 Ichabods that stepped up to the plate reached base at least once.
Book was 2-3 with a walk, two RBI, and one run scored. Savage and Bruce also had two hits each, with Savage scoring twice and Bruce scoring once and driving in a run.
Schmidtlein reached base five times with a double, walk, and three hit by pitches. He also collected three RBI and scored twice.
On the mound, Steward improved to 3-4. Cal Leonard threw a scoreless eighth inning and struck out one.
