By KYLE MANTHE
Special to TopSports.news
In Seaman’s first softball game of the 2023 season the Vikings took a 6-3 loss to Topeka West before bouncing back with a 13-1 win in the second half of the doubleheader.
Tuesday, in a single game, Seaman fell behind 5-1 after the second inning and scored eight runs over the final four innings to knock off Shawnee Heights, 9-5.
Seaman junior Jersey Jellison had a home run in Tuesday's 9-5 UKC comeback win over Shawnee Heights. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Seaman senior Aspen Burgardt was the starting pitcher and contributed a two-run double as the Vikings rallied for a 9-5 UKC win over Shawnee Heights. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
“The kids, they have a lot of character. It’s a really close-knit group of kids, “ said Seaman coach Jay Monhollon. “Today they just kept battling, you know, because to them they were in control.”
The Vikings (2-1) faced the Thunderbirds (2-1) for the first time as United Kansas Conference opponents and went on the road to do so. Shawnee Heights will repay the visit with a single game later in the season. An example within the schedule of the teams' overall comfort within the new conference.
“We are excited, conference-wise we have played some of the teams, not everybody but just a few of them,” Monhollon said. “It’s nice just being able to have that relationship even in a new conference already to be flexible … it helped both programs out.”
Seaman struck first in the game with a leadoff double by sophomore Raegan McConnell in the second inning. She came around to score on an error in the field. Shawnee Heights responded right back, with junior Spencer Habig singling into left field to knot up the game.
The Thunderbirds got five of their eight hits in the third inning, beginning with back-to-back singles by junior Alaryce Adams and sophomore Taylor Brees. Junior MacKenzie Birch scored one on a hard grounder to shortstop, and Habig hit a sac fly into right for another. Senior Korin Gonzales painted the chalk with a fly ball into right field that earned her two RBIs to make it 5-1.
Senior Korin Gonzales had a two-run double for Shawnee Heights in Tuesday's 9-5 UKC loss to Seaman. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
After senior Aspen Burgardt began the game in the circle for Seaman it was sophomore Kaelyn O’Rourke who came in the final four innings, allowing three hits with no runs and striking out six.
“Aspen started and she established some things for us as coaches, because we haven’t played Shawnee Heights in three years so we had zero (on them),” Monhollon said. “Then by the time we brought KO in we knew a better idea of how to attack and it just so happened that some of the things that Kaelyn does well, she was hot and she was able to hit her spots tonight.”
The Vikings' rally started with the top of the fourth inning and a leadoff home run to straightaway center by junior Jersey Jellison. The next inning Burgardt got back two runs for herself, hitting a double into rightfield, cutting the lead to just one run.
O’Rourke helped her own cause with a single to score one in the sixth and she was put in position to win after a wild pitch allowed junior Josie Hefner to score. Junior Rosalie Schneider and Burgardt followed with consecutive two-out hits, a single and a double, that each scored a run to make it 8-5.
“Timely hitting. It was nice, we needed a little jumpstart when JJ got hers and then Paige started that one inning … hitting is kind of contagious sometimes,” Monhollon said.
McConnell added an insurance run in the top of the inning with a solo shot to center field for her second extra base hit of the game. O’Rourke sat down Shawnee Heights to end it after that at 9-5.
The Vikes finished with 14 hits in the game from seven players, led by Burgardt with three. Six players had multi-hit days. The Thunderbirds collected eight hits at the plate, led by Birch with two, no other player had more than one.
SEAMAN 9, SHAWNEE HEIGHTS 5
Seaman (2-1) 010 124 1 -- 9 14 1
Shawnee Heights (2-1) 014 000 0 -- 5 8 1
W – O’Rourke. L -- Proctor. 2B – Seaman: Burgardt 2, McConnell, Hefner, Glasgow. Shawnee Heights: Gonzales, Schmidt. HR – Seaman: Jellison, McConnell.
