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By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
OTTAWA -- After Hayden’s baseball team held a 4-3 lead for innings three through six, Chanute slugged three extra-base hits with runners on base, earning a 6-4 lead, and would hold on to that lead to defeat the Wildcats in the opening round of Class 4A regional play Tuesday at Ottawa University.
Hayden coach Bill Arnold congratulates Brady Heinen during Tuesday's Class 4A regional game against Chanute. [Photo by Isaac Deer/TSN]
Hayden sophomore Cooper Grace delivers a pitch in Tuesday's Class 4A regional game against Chanute. [Photo by Isaac Deer/TSN]
For those three innings of play, Hayden looked like it had the victory in hand after tremendous pitching from sophomore Cooper Grace and stellar defensive play behind Grace.
But in the end, Chanute rallied from its one-run deficit with an RBI triple and two RBI doubles, giving Hayden just three outs to score at least two runs.
“I don’t know what to say except that it wasn’t our day,” Hayden coach Bill Arnold said. “I think our club is a very good ball club, and we had a great chance to make a run at a state title. But today, it felt like we beat ourselves out there a bit. I think we got complacent once we took the lead and dug ourselves a hole in the seventh.”
Mother Nature wasn’t kind to the Wildcats down the end of the regular season stretch, forcing Hayden (11-6) to cancel multiple games before regional play. While Arnold believes Hayden wasn’t in a funk from the lack of live action, it didn’t benefit the Wildcats.
“I don’t think we were slumping, but we were in a good routine of playing four games a week and ended up missing the last couple of weeks of the regular season,” Arnold said. “We couldn’t even get on the field to practice yesterday. But make no mistake; we must tip our hat to (Chanute).
“It stings right now.”
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By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
It only took Washburn Rural’s girls soccer team one half to advance to the Class 6A regional championship after its 10-0 mercy-rule victory over Wichita South in the opening round of postseason play at McElroy Field.
Washburn Rural sophomore Kate Hinck scored a pair of goals in Tuesday's 10-0 Class 6A regional romp past Wichita South. [Photo by Isaac Deer/TSN]
Senior captain Mackinly Rohn was credited with three assists in Tuesday's 10-0 Class 6A regional win over Wichita South. [Photo by Isaac Deer/TSN]
It was an easy day at the office for the Junior Blues. It was expected that Washburn Rural (12-4-1) would handle a slumping Wichita South (2-13-0) squad on Tuesday night, but how it handled its business so quickly was noteworthy.
Washburn Rural deserved its high No. 3 seed in its regional and the tune-up in the opening round. With the win, the Junior Blues were able to rest some starters and get some quality minutes for players that might need to step up later in the postseason.
“We always want to get that high seed and play games at home,” Washburn Rural coach Brian Hensyel said. “We earned ourselves a game today that we could manage pretty easily, but that’s because we had the great season that we did.
“With other teams playing extremely difficult games, we should be thankful that we got a good matchup in the first round.”
With the regular season behind them, the Junior Blues have a bigger picture in mind. Right now, the main focus for Washburn Rural is to win its next game against Derby so that they’re right back where they were a year ago -- in the 6A state quarterfinals.
“We just need to have a good mindset,” Hensyel said. “We need to stay focused. We have seniors that are graduating and a lot of distractions around right now. So we need to stay focused on our task.
“We wanted to be one of sixteen teams left after today. On Thursday, we want to be one of eight teams left. That’s the goal, and it doesn’t matter how it gets done. We need to have a good practice tomorrow so we can have a good night on Thursday.”
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By KYLE MANTHE
Special to TopSports.news
Seaman soccer took no chances in its first-round Class 5A regional matchup against Lansing (6-10-1) Tuesday, scoring five goals in the first half and coasting to a 9-0 win.
Seaman senior Jaycee Schumann (10) registered a three-goal hat trick in the Vikings' 9-0 Class 5A regional win over Lansing Tuesday night. [Photo by Kyle Manthe/Special to TSN]
Senior Brooklyn Yingling (6) scored two goals as Seaman topped Lansing 9-0 Tuesday to advance to a Class 5A regional final at Seaman. [Photo by Kyle Manthe/Special to TSN]
Seaman freshman Ava Golightley (26) had two goals in the Vikings' 9-0 Class 5A regional romp past Lansing. [Photo by Kyle Manthe/Special to TSN]
The No. 4 seeded Vikings (14-1-2) will host No. 5 Saint Thomas Aquinas for the regional championship at 6:15 p.m. on Thursday.
The opening-round win sets up a chance at redemption for Seaman, which had its season end to the Saints last year on Aquinas' way to a state title.
“We’ll have to play super well on Thursday to compete, I think we can play really well and beat anybody if we are at our best level … I don’t think they should need any motivating,” said Seaman coach Tim Nussbaum. “If you want to be the best then you need to beat the best and that’s our slogan. We are going to have a good training tomorrow, play our best on Thursday and leave it on the field.”
After finishing the season with two ties and a combined one goal scored Seaman spread its offensive production around on Tuesday, with five players scoring goals, all coming in the first 61 minutes of action.
“I think sometimes you have to have the mindset of whoever you play you have to play well and have a standard, and for a bit we didn’t have the standard and then we got it back,” Nussbaum said.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Hayden's girls soccer team was unable to capitalize on a high percentage of its scoring opportunities in Tuesday's Class 4A-1A regioal opener against Augusta, particularly in the first half.
But the Wildcats put more than enough in the back of the net to assure themselves of another game, taking a 4-0 shutout over the Orioles at Hayden.
Hayden senior Sloane Sims (5) scored a pair of goals in the Wildcats' 4-0 Class 4A-1A regional soccer win over Augusta Tuesday at Hayden. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Hayden freshman Carsyn Broxterman scored a pair of goals in the second half as the Wildcats pulled away for a 4-0 regional win over Augusta Tuesday at Hayden. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
"We created a lot of chances,'' Hayden coach Klaus Kreutzer said. "I thought in the middle third of the field we did great and in the offensive third we just kind of lost our composure.''
Hayden, which improved to 9-5-2, led by just a 1-0 count at halftime but took control with three second-half goals, earning a berth in Thursday's regional final at Rose Hill, which advanced with a 10-0 win over Winfield.
"I did say to them, 'Let's not wait until the second half to do things right,' '' Kreutzer said. "It's really pretty simple. They just have to do it.''
Kreutzer said it will be important for the Wildcats to step up their game on the offensive end as the games get tougher and tougher in the postseason
"We have to show up to play because you either show up to play or you're done,'' he said.
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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
Seaman's baseball team entered Tuesday's Class 5A regional tournment on the verge of history, but Viking coach Trent Oliva and his team were only focused on the present.
Seaman senior Bryson Vawter (left) and the Vikings celebrate their state-record 19th straight state baseball berth Tuesday at Seaman after a 4-2 win over Lansing. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
As it turned out the proud Vikings took care of both ends of the equation, capturing the regional title with a 4-2 championship-game win over Lansing while setting a state record with their 19th straight trip to the state tournament.
"We had not talked about it,'' Oliva said of the state record. "We hadn't talked about the number or anything like that. We just go out and just keep trying to do things the way we know how to do them.''
Seaman, which will take an 18-4 record into next Thursday's state tournament at Wichita State's Eck Stadium, rolled to the regional final with a 12-0 win in four and a half innings over Kansas City-Washington and rode a four-run first inning and clutch pitching from senior Bryson Vawter and sophomore Max Huston to the win over Lansing (14-8), which had handed the Vikings one of their four losses earlier in the year.
With the regional title Seaman moved into sole possession of the state record over Kansas City-Wyandotte, which had a streak of 18 straight state appearances.
"I think this is just a staple of our program,'' Vawter said. "We're just the ones that carry it on and hopefully we can do it next year. It's just the standard that they set the 18 years before us, that you've got to make it to Wichita.
"We carried it on tonight, played well, and this field has some good memories on it for us.''
Seaman never trailed in the final after a big first inning, but the Lions got within two runs in the third and had the tying run at home plate in the top of the seventh beore the Vikings turned a game-ending double play off a lineout.
"This time of the year they're going to be close and you're going to have to go out and make plays,'' Oliva said. "We were able to do that and score four there in the first inning and make that hold up throughout.
"Vawter did a great job and kind of battled through a little bit of adversity in the middle of the game, toughened up and goes through six and then Max does a good job coming in there and we were able to make some plays behind him,'' Oliva said.
