High School Baseball

Bishop Ward wins wooden bat game

by Donovan Corrigan
    With the advancements in technology leading to souped-up aluminum and fiberglass bats that are readily available from little league to high school, coaches and parents, alike, wonder quietly just how much of the young players hitting success today is attributed to hard work, skills and fundamentals or is it due in part to the bats they use.
    Bishop Ward baseball coach Dennis Hurla is an old-school baseball guy who still likes the sound of a hard-pitched baseball being whacked by a wooden bat. Hurla looks forward to the Cyclones annual wooden bat game. Ward was still able to plate six runs and swing the bats well, even if they started out as trees, in blanking Shawnee Mission East, 6-0 at Ward, last weekend.
    “Best game of the season, so far,” Hurla said. “Love playing with wooden bats. The swing has to be good, not just the bat (doing the work). Pitching and (the) short game comes into the priority column (to win).”
    Aaron Quisenberry went 2-for-2 with two Runs batted In. Quisenberry pitched seven strong innings to get the win. He allowed four hits while walking none and fanning three. Second basemen Matt Garcia had one hot and an RBI, while Jake Janes added an RBI on one hit. Senior shortstop John Oropeza is leading the Cyclones in hitting with an average of .481. Janes is next at .433, followed by junior third basemen Beau Stoker (.432) and Garcia (.423).
    Ward improved to 13-3 overall with the non-league victory. The Cyclones are unbeaten against Kansas Class 4A and 5A programs. Ward’s three losses are to larger schools. Rockhurst (twice) and Lawrence (6A) are the only teams to beat Ward this season. Hurla likes his team to compete against a tough schedule and doesn’t make excuses. “We are playing better, but we have room for improvement,” he said. “We want to play well against everyone, regardless of size.”

Blue Devils rebound to win playoff;
draw No. 1 seed at Wichita Saturday

    Passing one gut check in the sub-regional tournament, Kansas City Kansas Community College will get another Saturday when the Blue Devils open Region VI playoff action against Seward County, the Jayhawk West champion and No. 1 seed from the West.
    “It’s a whole new season,” said KCKCC Coach Steve Burleson, who has a 2-2 lifetime record against Seward.     “From the looks at all the splits in the first round, seeds may not mean very much.”
    KCKCC was one of six teams that had to go to a third and final game in sub-regional play to advance to the Region VI meet where the Blue Devils (31-17) will take on Seward (41-17) Saturday at 1 p.m. in Wichita’s Lawrence Dumont Stadium. Only Cowley County and Johnson County won sub-regionals in just two games. Seward fell to Neosho 9-4 before bouncing back with 8-7 and 8-2 wins in its sub-regional.
    A double elimination tournament, a win Saturday would send the Blue Devils against the Johnson County-Barton County winner Sunday at 4 p.m.; a loss would put them in Sunday’s first game at 10 a.m. The tourney runs through Tuesday.
    KCKCC had to sweep its final two games 11-4 and 11-7 Sunday after a gut-wrenching 9-4 loss to Colby on Saturday.
    “I thought we did a great job of really staying in the moment,” said Coach Steve Burleson. “We didn’t get down or feel pressure after dropping the first game and really made a concentrated effort to score in every frame. We stretched some of our pitchers and they responded to higher pitch counts. And I think our specialty game, bunting and going from first to third, put some pressure on them and forced some errors.”
    Tied 4-4 in the top of the ninth inning Saturday, a two-out error with runners on first and second opened the floodgates as Colby scored five runs for the 9-4 win. The uprising hung the loss on Mitch Handley, who gave up only two earned runs in 8 2/3 innings. Trailing 4-2 in the seventh, the Blue Devils had tied the game on a two-out triple by Kevin Logan, a walk, double steal and a passed ball. Out-hit 14-7, Blake Stroth had three of KCKCC’s hits.
    The Blue Devils also trailed 4-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning of Sunday’s first game before tying it on two-out single by Brandon Kelley following a walk, a single by Logan Wysong and a sacrifice bunt.
    The Blue Devils went ahead 5-4 in the seventh on one of four singles by Ritchie Kiec and a two-out single by Zach Theademan and then put the game away with a six-run eighth inning. Kiec singled in two runs and Brandon Truitt doubled in two more in a rally that was ignited by a one-out double by Logan, a run-scoring single by Wade Schwerdtfeger and a squeeze bunt by Stroth.
    Trent Kohlstaedt in relief of Austin Etling got the win, allowing just one run, four hits and no walks in 4 2/3 innings.
    Although the Blue Devils never trailed after taking a 3-1 lead in the second inning of the deciding third game, they needed a 5-run sixth inning to hold off a good-hitting Colby team, which had 14 hits but made five errors.
Singles by Andy Dowers and Kiec ignited the 5-run inning. Stroth’s squeeze bunt scored one, Theademan singled in two more and a double by Wysong and sacrifice flies by Logan and Kelly scored the final three. Dowers, Kiec and Theademan each had a pair of hits in the win.
    Travis Parker got the win with strong relief work by lefthander Drew Rainey, who allowed just two hits in 2 2/3 innings and struck two in the ninth.