DRAGONS COMPLETE COLBY SWEEP, REMAIN IN 1ST IN WEST
Hutchinson CC Sports Information
The Hutchinson Community College baseball team completed an improbable four-game sweep of the Colby Trojans on Saturday and took charge of the Jayhawk West championship chase with one week to go in the regular season.
Hutchinson rallied from three runs down twice in Game 1 Saturday to force extra innings and won on a walk-off error in a 7-6 nine-inning come-from-behind victory. Mike Brown and Ryan Summers then combined on a six-hit shutout as the Blue Dragons downed Colby 5-0 in the series finale.
Winners of eight games in a row, the Blue Dragons improve to a season-high 20 games over .500 at 36-16. The Dragons maintain their two-game lead over Butler in the Jayhawk West with a 20-8 record. Colby falls four games off the pace and is tied with Cloud County at 30-18 overall, 16-12 in the West.
Hutchinson earned its first series sweep over Colby since 2008.
Entering the series, Hutchinson and Colby were tied for first place in the Jayhawk West.
Hutchinson and Cloud County will meet in the final four games of the regular season beginning Thursday at Hobart-Detter Field.
GAME 1 RECAP
Scoreless through five innings, Colby broke through in the top of the sixth. Matt Coutney's two-run single sparked a four-run, five-hit inning after the Trojans mustered just two hits in the first five innings off Hutch starter Dylan Nedved.
The Blue Dragons answered back, cutting the Colby lead to 4-3 after six innings. Logan Sartori and Nedved hit a two-run single to center. The Trojans rebuilt their three-run lead in the seventh with a Coutney RBI double and Cameron Tilley sacrifice fly for a 6-3 Colby lead.
With a runner and first and two out in the bottom of the seventh, Zane Schmidt singled in a run to cut the deficit to 6-4. A balk on Colby pitcher Ryan Olchoway allowed Logan Sartori to score to make it 6-5 and move pinch runner Jeremiah Ceasar to second. He advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on Nedved's infield single to third.
Summers pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth, aided by a 3-6-3 inning-ending double play in the ninth.
With one out in the bottom of the ninth, Ceasar laced a double to the right-field corner. After an intentional walk to Riley Metzger, the Blue Dragons won the game when Nedved hit a groundball to short that went under the glove of shortstop Owen Harms and Ceasar to score from second for Hutch's fifth walk-off win of the season.
Had the Blue Dragons not rallied, Hutch's conference lead would have dwindled to one game.
The Blue Dragons were out-hit 12-8.
Nedved went 2 for 5 and drove in three runs to lead the Blue Dragons.
Sartori went 2 for 5 with two runs and RBI and a triple. That triple was Sartori's ninth career triple, which tied him with Jordan Robison for second on the career triples list.
Schmidt also went 2 for 4 with an RBI.
Nedved didn't allow a hit until the fourth, but allowed 11 hits through 6 1-3 innings. He gave up six runs and struck out six with no walks. Summers (7-2) earned the win with a hit and walk allowed with three strikeouts over the final two innings.
GAME 2 RECAP
Brown and the Blue Dragon defense frustrated Colby in the series finale.
Brown moved to 5-0 for the season and earned his 10th career victory with six shutout innings he scattered six hits and walked three with three strikeouts.
Brown made two key pitches in the game in the second and fifth innings. Colby loaded the bases with one out in each inning, but Brown got Lachlan Ross in the second and Tilly in the fifth to ground into identical inning-ending 5-3 double plays started by Nedved.
Summers pitched a perfect top of the ninth to complete Hutchinson's fourth shutout of the season.
Zion Bowlin drove in Hutch's first run in the second with an RBI single that scored Moritz, Bowlin doubled off the wall in left field in the bottom of the fourth to score Christopher Noble. He then scored on a Schmidt RBI single for a two-run fourth and a 3-0 lead.
The Dragons added two huge insurance runs with Schmidt's RBI triple scored Moritz and Sartori in the sixth for a 5-0 lead.
Schmidt went 3 for 4 in Game 2 with three runs scored. Bowlin was 2 for 3 with a double and two RBIs.
Hutch had just six hits in the second game.