By KYLE MANTHE
TopSports.news
An undefeated season came to an end for Hayden on Wednesday evening as the Wildcats' bid for another state tournament berth fell short in the regional championship with a 9-8 loss to Tonganoxie.
A seventh-inning rally for Bill Arnold's Hayden baseball team came up just short in Wednesday's 9-8 Class 4A regional loss to Tonganoxie, the Wildcats' lone loss in a 23-1 season. [Photo by Kyle Manthe/Special to TSN]
A five-run rally in the bottom of the seventh was not enough to overcome five errors in the field for a 24th straight victory on the season.
“What I saw was defensively we made a lot of mistakes. We had errors in the field which has been very uncommon for this team. We’ve played solid defense all year long and had great pitching,” said Wildcat coach Bill Arnold. “We picked a bad day not to play well.”
The regional championship game was set after Tonganoxie, the No. 8 seed, dispatched of El Dorado 10-0 to begin the day. The top-seeded Wildcats held on for a 5-4 win over Augusta in Game 2 of the day.
“We didn’t play very well the first game. I was hoping we would get things squared away and play a solid championship game and we didn’t. Credit Tonganoxie for coming out and taking what we gave them,” Arnold said.
Hayden did not trail by more than two runs until the seventh inning when they faced a 9-3 deficit after the Chieftains scored five in the top of the inning.
The Wildcats managed to put the potential winning run on first base with the rally coming up just short.
“I’m proud of them. I don’t think one game necessarily describes the make-up of this team but at the same time we got beat and that’s life,” Arnold said. “I’m extremely proud of this group, it’s one of the best groups I’ve ever coached.”
The first and only lead for Hayden came in the first inning on a sacrifice fly from Cooper Grace, giving himself a lead on the mound by driving in Mason Becker who led off with a single.
Hayden sophomore Mason Becker singled and scored his team's first run in the Wildcats' 9-8 loss to Tonganoxie in Wednesday's Class 4A regional final. [Photo by Kyle Manthe/Special to TSN]
The lead quickly went to Tonganoxie with a hit batter and pair of batters reaching on bunts to load the bases. A single up the middle scored one with two more coming in on a double play grounder and an error in the field to make it 3-1.
In the home half of the second the Wildcats took advantage of two errors by Tonganoxie, scoring one on a bases loaded walk by Brady Heinen. A leadoff walk from Caleb Menke scored on a Liam Annand sacrifice fly to knot the game at three in the third.
A pair of singles along with a wild pitch was all it took for the Chieftains to go back in front 4-3 in the fifth. After Hayden loaded the bases and wasuna ble to score in the sixth the lead grew to six with five runs on three hits and two errors in the seventh.
The Wildcats responded, with RBI from Brady Deutsch, Aiden Roberts and Mason Becker cutting the deficit to three with one out. Grace found the outfield grass, scoring two with a two-out single. That’s as close as Hayden would get, with the rally coming up just short.
“This is a great senior group, I’m very proud of the four years that they’ve put in here and what they’ve done and we’re definitely going to miss them,” Arnold said.
The Wildcats out-hit Tonganoxie 9-7 in the game, while also committing five errors to the visitors' four.
Hayden star Cooper Grace struck out 10 hitters in the Wildcats' 9-8 loss to Tonganoxie in Wednesday's Class 4A regional final. [Photo by Kyle Manthe/Special to TSN]
Grace went 6.2 innings with 10 strikeouts. At the plate he had two hits while Caleb Menke reached base three times, all via walk.
TONGANOXIE 9, HAYDEN 8
Tonganoxie (16-11) 030 010 5 — 9 7 4
Hayden (23-1) 111 000 5 — 8 9 5
Grace, Annand (7) and Wahlmeier (7). Davenport, Langford (6) and Eccles (7). W—Davenport. L – Grace. 2B – Hayden: Mitchell.
