DRAGONS USE TWO-OUT MAGIC TO DEFEAT REDLANDS
Hutchinson CC Sports Information
The Hutchinson Community College Baseball team produced with two outs aplenty on Tuesday against the Redlands Cougars at Hobart-Detter Field.
The Blue Dragons were a combined 7 of 13 batting in two-out situations and all six runs scored came with two out as Hutchinson defeated Redlands 6-1.
The Blue Dragons (20-13) move a season-best seven games over .500 and reach 20 wins in a season for the 27th-straight season. Hutchinson opens a four-game series with the Sterling College Junior Varsity at 3 p.m. on Wednesday at Hobart-Detter Field.
Ryan Moritz and Zach Baxley had three hits and one RBI each. Max McGuire had two hits and two RBIs as Hutchinson out-hit Redlands 10-4.
The Blue Dragons took a 1-0 lead in the first when McGuire hit an opposite-field single to right to score Zane Schmidt, who doubled. The Cougars tied the game at 1 when Joshua Detwieler homered in the fourth. The Dragons immediately regained the lead when Moritz singled up the middle to plate Baxley from second for a 2-1 lead.
Hutchinson carried that lead into the seventh when, with two out, Logan Sartori and Schmidt worked a pair of walks. Dylan Nedved, McGuire and Baxley all followed with RBI singles to make it 5-1. McGuire scored Hutchinson's sixth run on the back end of a double-steal attempt.
Things turned a bit bizarre in the eighth. With Zach Firmature pitching, he retired the first two Redlands hitters and then walked the next two. On the first pitch to Casey Cooper, Firmature bounced a pitch to the plate that McGuire blocked and kept in front of him. As McGuire went for the ball, it was deemed that his mask and the ball came in contact with each other. Initially both runners were allowed to score on a three-base penalty.
Blue Dragon head coach Ryan Schmidt, after a long discussion with the umpires, played the game under protest. A close to 20-minute delay ensued as the umpires left the field to figure out the ruling. When they returned, it was decided that both runners would get only one base each instead of three and were returned to second and third. Cooper then lined out to Sartori to end the inning and keep the score at 6-1.
Dawson Linder (2-0) worked five strong innings to earn the pitching victory. Linder's five innings were a season high. He tied a season high with five strikeouts. Linder allowed just three hits and one run allowed.
Cade Fenton struck out five in two scoreless innings in the sixth and seventh. Fenton allowed one hit and one walk. Firmature worked the eighth with two walks allowed and Ethan Peterson fanned two in a spotless ninth to close the game.