By CHARLES SPURLOCK
Special to TopSports.news
The Seaman Vikings played their final home baseball game of the season on Tuesday night against United Kansas Conference rival Shawnee Heights, with Viking senior Cale Rosenberger limiting the T-Birds to just one hit in a 10-0 win.
Shawnee Heights had a promising start to the game with back-to-back errors by Seaman, which put runners at first and third with no outs.
Rosenberger then induced a ground ball double play followed by a groundout to prevent any runs from scoring.
The Vikings responded in the bottom of the first with a leadoff double from junior Beau Jessop, who scored on junior Axton Brewer’s RBI single. The Vikings were able to load the bases with a couple of walks, but were unable to tack on any additional runs.
Rosenberger then shut down Heights in order over the second and third innings while his offense scored seven runs over those same two innings.
Senior Cooper Hayes hit a two-run triple and senior Connor Puvogel had a bases-loaded walk to account for the three runs in the second inning. The third inning saw RBI from Jessop, sophomore Michael Dobbs and another from Puvogel.
The T-Birds' only hit of the night was an infield hit in the top of the fourth inning off the bat of Cayden Lindsay.
Rosenberger was able to set down 10 straight T-Bird hitters over the first four innings and also had four strikeouts.
“Cale set the tone for us and was able to get out of the first inning with the double play,'' Seaman coach Steve Bushnell said. "He was outstanding, with 65 pitches over six innings. He’s been like that over his last five starts for us.”
Following scoreless fourth and fifth innings, Seaman was able to score two runs in the bottom of the sixth to end the game due to being ahead by 10 runs after at least five innings.
Senior Gavin Colley had a fielder’s choice RBI and Hayes ended the contest with an RBI single, making the score 10-0.
Bushnell remains excited about the potential of his ball club.
“If we play locked in, play complimentary baseball and do the situational things right, we feel we can compete with the ranked teams in the state,'' he said. "We have a very high ceiling and the potential, it’s just a matter of going out and executing.”
While looking ahead to the return game with Heights on Thursday at Bettis Family Sports Complex, Bushnell said: “We hope to perform as well as we did tonight, but at the same time, we need to prepare ourselves for (regionals) next week."
The Vikings honored 11 seniors before the start of the game -- Colley, Caeden Cooper, Zach Farkas, Hayes, Matthew McConnaughey, Kevin Moe, Puvogel, Garrett Ramos, Cale Rosenberger, Cole Rosenberger and Joe Unruh.
The Vikings will finish the regular season Thursday with a rematch at Shawnee Heights at 6 p.m.
SEAMAN 10, SHAWNEE HEIGHTS 0
Shawnee Heights (16-9) 000 000 — 0 1 1
Seaman (12-11) 134 002 — 10 9 3
Mueller, Smith (3), Lilly (3) and Purvis. Cale Rosenberger and Moe. W -- Rosenberger. L -- Mueller. 2B -- Seaman: Jessop. 3B -- Seaman: Hayes.
