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By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

After putting up a spirited fight in a 14-11 loss at Division I Wichita State on Tuesday, Washburn returns to MIAA action with an important three-game road series at Missouri Western Thursday through Saturday in St. Joseph, Mo.

Washburn junior third baseman Trenton Barry (4) and the Ichabods will face Missouri Western in an MIAA road series Thursday through Saturday. [File photo/TSN]

The Ichabods will begin the series at 6 p.m. Thursday, followed by a 3 p.m. game on Friday and a 1 p.m. series finale on Saturday.

Washburn, 12-20 overall and 9-10 in the MIAA, gave a good accounting of itself in Tuesday's 14-11 loss at Eck Stadium to Wichita State, 20-10 on the year, including a five-run rally in the top of the ninth in the three-run loss.

"I felt like we came out right away with a lot of fire and nothing really to lose, playing up a division,'' Washburn junior third basemen Trenton Barry said. "We came out with fire and I think we carried it out. We made our mistakes here and there and that obviously cost us the game in the end.

"But that late run that we had, that showed that fight that we have. We've just got mistakes here and there that we've got to clean up. That's kind of been what the story's been all year and it's all going to be about fixing those and carrying on.''

And Barry, who is hitting .300 with two home runs, a team-high three triples and 19 RBI,  said that it's time to get that done, beginning with the Missouri Western series.

"There's not much time to figure it out,'' he said. "Either you do it or you don't and that's going to be your wins and your losses. We showed (against Wichita State) that we are capable of playing with anybody in this country and I feel like we know that now.

"There should be no doubt in our mind going into every day that we should go win the game. We just need to put it all together now.'' 

Washburn is scoring 7.94 runs per game on the season while opponents are averaging 8.75 runs per game.

At the plate the Ichabods are hitting .288 and have tallied 23 home runs with 169 total walks.

The pitching staff has a 7.29 earned run average with 250 strikeouts across 279.0 innings. The Ichadobds have allowed 350 hits and issued 187 walks. 

Washburn has a .964 fielding percentage as a team with 44 errors and 16 turned double plays.

WU's Ian Luce has the longest current hitting streak at 11 games heading into the weekend, the longest hitting streak of any player this season.

Luce is hitting a team-high .404 with 31 runs batted in and has reached base in all 32 games, the only Ichabod player to do so, and has a team-high 18 games with multiple hits. 

Levi Risenhoover is hitting .317 and leads the team with seven home runs and 36 RBI.

Brandt Beeby is hitting .319, second-best on the team, in 16 stars.

Former Seaman standout Maclane Finley has thrown a team-high 42.0 innings across his eight starts this season.

He has struck out 31 batters and has a 6.86 ERA and 3-3 record,  a team-high in victories. He has thrown into the fifth inning in every start.

Missouri Western fell to 15-17 overall and 10-11 in the MIAA with an 8-3 loss on the road to Emporia State on Tuesday.

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By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

Barring a big upset, Seaman baseball was going to sweep Wednesday's United Kansas Conference home doubleheader against city rival Topeka West.

Seaman junior Axton Brewer had a big day at the plate in Wednesday's UKC sweep over Topeka West, including a home run and a three-run double. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

But there were still things, in addition to a pair of wins, that Viking coach Steve Bushnell wanted his team to accomplish.

And Seaman was able to achieve each and every one of Bushnell's goals in a 12-0, 20-0 sweep over the Chargers as the Vikings improved to 6-2 overall and 5-1 in the UKC while stretching their winning streak to five games.

Wednesday's routs came on the heels of a 15-0, 11-0 UKC sweep over Turner on Tuesday.

"The big thing was just an opportunity to get on the field and being early in our season, just having an opportunity to run some situational offense and get back in tune with verbal commands and baserunning and things that you work on in practice, but it's not always a live situation,'' Bushnell said.

"So having an opportunity to run bases and just let the hitters get some on-field hacks was important over the last two days and last four games that we've played.''

Senior Cale Rosenberger (8) had a pair of doubles in Seaman's 12-0 first-game win over Topeka West. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

Seaman sophomore Michael Dobbs and sophomore Carson Anspaugh combined to throw a five-inning no-hitter in the first game while the Vikings lashed out 12 hits and seven extra-base hits, including a home run from junior Axton Brewer.

Senior Cooper Hayes and junior Bryson Fehr combined for a one-hitter in the second game while Seaman batted around twice in the first inning en route to a 14-run first inning and tacked on six runs in the second inning, ending the game after two and a half innings by way of the 15-run spread rule.

Junior Beau Jessop and Fehr tripled in the game while Brewer had a three-run double and Dobbs delivered a two-run double.

"Our pitchers were outstanding for the most part, just throwing strikes and pitching to contact,'' Bushnell said.

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By VINCE LOVERGINE

TopSports.news

A cold windy night at the Bettis Family Sports Complex Tuesday night did not fare too well for the Shawnee Heights baseball team, as the bats went cold in a 6-2 United Kansas Conference loss to Basehor-Linwood.

 

Basehor-Linwood jumped out to a 2-0 lead after a couple of RBI singles but Heights also hurt itself, committing two errors in the inning and four total in the game.

 

In the first two innings Shawnee Heights went three up, three down, including three strikeouts.

 

The Bobcats led 3-0 in the top of the third inning and began the inning reaching base with an error that opened the door to score two more runs, pushing the advantage to 5-0.

 

SHHS made a pitching change in the middle of the inning, replacing starter Cambren Floberg for Keaven Ortiz.

 

“I told Cam, 'You come out here and there’s just days you don’t have it. It happens to all of us. Let it go and it’s about the next time you go on the mound. It’s over with and you can’t fix it,' ” Heights coach Jason Brown said. “He threw strikes, a little unlucky behind him, a lack of focus there but I think he’ll be fine come his next outing.”

 

The T-Birds went one-two-three in the third despite starting inning with an infield hit. After a double play and a strikeout, any momentum vanished.

 

Basehor-Linwood took a 6-0 lead in the fourth, and yet again, Heights went one-two-three, ending the inning with a double play.

 

Through five innings the T-Birds had just two hits, but in the sixth they were able to scratch one across the board as Makade Orton ripped an RBI single into right before being thrown out trying to advance to second base.

 

Thomas Smith for Shawnee Heights came in at the top of the sixth and retired all six batters he faced to give the T-Birds some hope.

 

After Steven Zimbelman completed six innings, striking out seven, allowing two walks and one earned run, his brother Colin Zimbelman came on in relief.

 

The T-Birds loaded the bases with no outs, giving Heights some life at a comeback.

 

Cayden Lindsay grounded into a double play to push across one run, making it 6-2, and Michael Lilly couldn’t keep the rally going, striking out swinging to end the game.

 

“We walked on here and we were sleep walking and you can’t do that,” Brown said. “You have to show up and be ready to go every time you step on the field. We tell our players there are three facets to the game, you swing it well, you pitch it well and take care of it behind our pitcher and two of those three we did not do.

 

“The good thing about this game is the two guys that we brought in relief, we hadn’t thrown them yet this year and us as a coaching staff we found out that some of them are ready. So that was a positive to take something out of this game. We have a lot of baseball left and I think this will wake them up and when you step on the field, you can’t take any days off.”

 

BASEHOR-LINWOOD 6, SHAWNEE HEIGHTS 2 

Basehor-Linwood (3-3) 212 100 0 -- 6 5 1

Shawnee Heights (4-2) 000 001 1 -- 2 4 4

 

W -- S. Zimbelman L -- Floberg. 2B – Basehor-Linwood: Kiernan.