After taking down the Redlands Cougars in both games on day one of the 2024 season, the Seward County Saints baseball team completed the four-game series sweep over the Cougars with two more wins on day two, beating Redlands 7-1 in the first game and 9-3 in the second to improve to 4-0 on the season.
Trenton Rowan helped lead the way for SCCC in game one as he stepped up to bat and grounded out towards the middle of the field, allowing Brock Sundlie to make his run to home for Seward County’s first score of the day and take a 1-0 lead over the Cougars. Rowan continued his success at the plate in a big way to start the third as he slugged out a grand slam to increase the Saints lead out to 5-0 before connecting on another home run hit in the fifth to single handedly put SCCC ahead 7-0. A home run by Redlands in the bottom of the fifth put them on the board 7-1 but could not stop the Saints who finished off the Cougars for the third straight game of the series.
Seward County continued their dominance over Redlands in the second game of the day as they opened the contest with two quick runs in the first inning off a pop fly from Rowan to allow Cameron Cartwright to score and a few pitches later Rowan scored himself off an error by the Cougars’ catcher to put the Saints in front 2-0. A two-run homer in the bottom of the first by Redlands tied the game back up at 2-2 until a big third inning for SCCC allowed them to jump back into the lead. Multiple walks by the Cougars pitcher allowed Nathan Hopkins to score with ease while a double from Keagon Pitton to left field drove in Rowan and Kaden Juarez to put the Saints total up to five while a double by Adam Mendoza drove in another two runs to put Seward County far ahead 7-2. Another two scores by SCCC in the top of the fifth grew the lead to 9-2 and despite another run from Redlands in the bottom of the sixth, the Saints completed the series sweep with a 9-3 win over the Cougars.
In game one it was Rowan who led Seward County to victory, hitting two home runs that drove in all seven of the Saints runs. TJ Newman earned the win for SCCC as he struck out 6 batters in five innings of action and allowed only one hit in the game.
Game two saw a multitude of players in the green and white score for the Saints including Kotaro Wakui and Piton who both went 2-3 at bat with 2 runs each. Tyler Wilcox won game two for Seward County where he pitched in five of the seven innings, striking out a total of 5 batters.
Saints baseball will return home undefeated at 4-0 following their first series of the 2024 season. They will now turn their attention towards Kirkwood who will enter Liberal, Kansas for SCCC’s first home series of the season next Saturday and Sunday with both days hosting two games at 1:00 and 3:00 PM.
