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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The goal for city softball powers Seaman and Washburn Rural is to sweep every doubleheader they play.
But Viking coach Dan Ruda and Junior Blues coach Joy Marie Galliart both found aspects of their team's performance to feel good about after Tuesday's twinbill split at Washburn Rural.
Olivia Koch launches a first-inning home run in Washburn Rural's second-game softball win over Seaman. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Olivia Koch is congratulated by her teammates after a first-inning home run in Washburn Rural's second-game win over Seaman. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Seaman (17-5) took the opener 7-5 after jumping out to a 6-0 lead and holding off the Junior Blues late, while Rural (14-7) followed its Senior Day festivities with a 3-2 win in the nightcap.
Ruda said that facing a quality program like Washburn Rural should help get the Vikings ready for their stretch run.
"We want our kids to see the best pitching they can see and play the best competition they can play so when we get to the postseason nothing's going to surprise them, hopefully,'' Ruda said. "I like the way we're playing.''
"Washburn Rural's a good program and they played clean softball in that second game and we just couldn't get a big hit there. I told our girls it seemed like they had four girls in the outfield. That center-fielder (Layla Collins) was all over. She did a great job, she was fantastic tonight, and they did a good job keeping us off-balance with their pitching.''
Galliart, meanwhile, was happy with how her team bounced back after a disappointing start in the first game.
"I definitely feel like there are some things that had we done more efficiently in the first game and not put ourselves in a six-run deficit in the first two innings then we're not feeling so much pressure the entire game and then the outcome might have been a little bit different, but Seaman is a good program and they came out ready to play the first game and I don't feel like we did,'' Galliart said.
"Of course I would have loved to have had a sweep, but we lost to a good team and a good program and we rebounded and took care of things in the second game and a split is better than getting swept.''
The Vikings jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning in the first game and made it a 6-0 game with four runs in the top of the second.
Seaman sophomore Acey Thompson doubled and scored in the first inning of the Vikings' 7-5 first-game softball win over Washburn Rural Tuesday. [File photo/TSN[
Right-fielder Acey Thompson led off the game with a double and came around to score while catcher Raegan McConnell walked and scored in the Seaman first.
Seaman junior Aubrey Warren had a home run and a double in the Vikings' twinbill split with Washburn Rural. [File photo/TSN]
Seaman scored four runs on three hits, a walk and a hit batter in the second, including an Aubrey Warren double.
The Vikings only managed a single run in the fifth the rest of the way, but Seaman's pitching tandem of Kaelyn O'Rourke and Lydia Dreher were able to survive Rural's late threats for the win.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
EMPORIA -- In a Centennial League tournament dominated by Manhattan, Washburn Rural senior Tadd Armstrong and Hayden senior Tagen Rodriquez led the city contingent with a tie for second place individually.
Washburn Rural senior Tadd Armstrong shot a 72 to tie for second in Monday's Centennial League golf tournament. [File photo/TSN]
Hayden senior Tagen Rodriguez shot a 72 to tie for second in Monday's Centennial League golf tournament. [File photo/TSN]
Both Armstrong and Rodriguez shot 72s to finish two strokes behind tournament medalist Charlie Haney of Manhattan.
Haney was one of four Indians who finished in the top seven individually as Manhattan won the team championship by a 288-301 margin over host Emporia with Hayden third at 302 and Washburn Rural fourth at 303.
Hayden's James Kuta and Washburn Rural's Tagan Monasmith also posted top-10 finishes, tying for eighth with 75s.
CENTENNIAL LEAGUE GOLF
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Doubles champions Cale Deutscher and Dylan Willingham paced Washburn Rural to the Centennial League tennis team championship Monday at Junction City.
Washburn Rural won the Centennial League boys tennis championship Monday in Junction City. [Washburn Rural tennis]
Washburn Rural placed all four of its entries in the top five places en route to a 39-36 victory over Manhattan in the team race.
In addition to Deutscher and Willingham's title, the Junior Blues also got third and fifth-place singles finishes from Keegan Knudtson and Greyson Jones and a fourth-place doubles finish from Ben Tryhus and Keegan O'Connor.
Topeka High's Tres Lassiter was the Centennial League runnerup in singles while Hayden's Chase Blaser and Evan George finished second in doubles.
Lassiter, the city champ in No. 1 singles, dropped a 6-0, 6-0 decision to Jay Hoke in the singles final while Deutscher and Willingham took a 6-4, 6-3 win over Blaser and George.
Topeka High junior Tres Lassiter finished second in singles in Monday's Centennial League tournament. [File photo/TSN]
Topeka High, which finished third as a team, also got a third-place doubles finish from Alex Raymond and Christian Sink while Hayden finished fourth in the team standings.
CENTENNIAL LEAGUE BOYS TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
After just under six hours of baseball, 37 hits and 38 runs, city powers Washburn Rural and Shawnee Heights battled it out to a non-league doubleheader split Monday at Rural.
[Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
[Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Shawnee Heights, now 15-6, took an 8-7 eight-inning win in the first game before Washburn Rural, 13 -6, rallied from 7-2 and 11-8 deficits to take a 12-11 victory in the nightcap.
Both Rural and Heights had plenty of positives that Junior Blues coach Jay Mastin and T-Bird coach Jason Brown could point to, but both coaches also saw areas their teams need to improve on, with Rural stranding 19 baserunners in the first game and Heights issuing 13 walks in the second game.
"I thought we could have swept them, they could have swept us and we're very fortunate to walk away with a split,'' Mastin said. "Game 1 we just couldn't find the big hit. We put ourselves in scoring position with the bases loaded or second and third and the balls we did get to the outfield were right at the outfielders and we just couldn't get that big hit.''
"I think we swung the bat pretty well, especially in the second game and we got some big-time hits in some big-time situations,'' Brown said. "I thought our defense was really good. We've just got to be a little better on the mound, a little more efficient on the mound, but overall I thought we played well.''
Rural jumped out to a 2-0 first-inning lead in the opener, but Shawnee Heights tied the game in the third and went in front 6-2 with a four-run fifth.
The Junior Blues answered with a four-spot of their own in the bottom of the fifth to knot things at 6-6.
The two teams traded single runs in the sixth and the game went to extra innings before Shawnee Heights' Camden Olson tripled to knock in the game-winning run in the T-Birds' 8-7 win.
Carson Garner, the fourth T-Bird pitcher, picked up the pitching win and also had a triple.
Washburn Rural had 10 hits in the game, including doubles from Wilson Miller and Gage Dowell.
Shawnee Heights jumped out to a 3-0 lead through two and a half innings in the nightcap and went up 7-2 with a fourth-run fourth as Cambren Floberg and Deacon Pomeroy both homered for the T-Birds.
Rural tied the game with five runs in the bottom of the fifth as the Junior Blues sent 10 players to the plate and got a huge three-run pinch hit double from junior AJ Payne.
The game was tied at 8-all after both teams scored single runs in the sixth but Shawnee Heights regained temporary control with three runs in the top of the seventh as Floberg delivered a two-run single and Pomeroy plated the T-Birds' final run with a single.
Washburn Rural junior Noah Johnson reacts to his game-winning walk in Monday's 12-11 second-game win over Shawnee Heights. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Junior AJ Ditch tied the game with a three-run inside-the-park homer and Rural scored the game-winning run on a bases-loaded walk to junior Noah Johnson, scoring junior Drew Moore, who also walked.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Seaman's boys tennis team took some lumps early in Monday's United Kansas Conference championships at Kossover Tennis Center, with the Vikings coming up short in their bid to advance to the title matches in either singles or doubles.
But Seaman was at its best down the stretch, with Jamie Robinson's Vikings rallying to claim their first UKC team crown by a 57-55 margin over Topeka West.
Seaman rallied from a slow start to capture its first UKC boys tennis championship Monday at Kossover Tennis Center. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
"We lost some early matches that I thought we could win,'' Robinson said. "We lost a heartbreaker in a tiebreaker when we were up in the tiebreaker with one of our doubles teams, but we were able to rebound in the last few rounds and that was enough. It was close and that was a lot of fun.''
Seaman got third and fifth-place singles finishes from Ethan Winter and Camden Dutton while Dayton Schneider and Owen Stewart took third in doubles and Wesley Budge and David Budge rounded out the Viking lineup with a ninth-place doubles finish.
Robinson said the Vikings have continued to grow as a team as the season has progressed.
"I knew we had depth this year,'' he said. "I didn't know if we had any big, big juggernauts, but we had depth and that came through. We had a lot of success early in the year and I thought, 'Wow, we're for real.' ''
Shawnee Heights' Brock Curley fought through cramping issues to win the UKC singles championship Monday at Kossover Tennis Center. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Shawnee Heights also had a UKC title to celebrate, with Brock Corley overcoming mid-match cramping issues to take an 8-4 win over Topeka West's Mark Cianciarulo in the singles championship match.
"Usually I really don't have cramps, but today I was dehydrated so I was cramping up,'' Corley said.
Corley returned to action after being forced to take a short break and was able to take control down the stretch for the victory.
"I was drinking electrolytes and eating salt to help the pain go away and it went away after I took the salt,'' he said.
Corley said he tried to play with a sense of urgency after the cramping problems.
"I was like, 'Lets just go end it now. Lets go end it so we don't have to worry about it any more,' '' Corley said. "It felt good to win.''
In addition to Cianciarulo's second-place finish, team runnerup West also posted a second-place finish in doubles, with Julian Ramcharan and Collin McGee dropping an 8-2 decision to Piper in the final.
Seaman and Topeka West will compete in a Class 5A regional tournament on Saturday at Bonner Springs while Shawnee Heights will compete the same day in a regional at De Soto.
The 5A state tournament will be contested May 16-17 at Salina.
UNITED KANSAS CONFERENCE CITY BOYS TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS
