BLUE DRAGONS COMPLETE REGION VI COMEBACK, ADVANCE TO WICHITA
Hutchinson CC Sports Information
For the second-straight season, the Hutchinson Community College pulled off the Great Escape.
One year ago in the Region VI Tournament Opening-Round series against Coffeyville, the Blue Dragons lost the first game and rallied to win the next two games to advance to the Central District Tournament in Wichita.
The Blue Dragons completed that same achievement on Saturday at Hobart-Detter Field. After forcing a decisive third game with a 13-4 win over Labette earlier on Saturday, the Blue Dragons got clutch pitching performances from Miguel Reyes Jr. and Ryan Summers and Hutchinson completed the comeback with a 2-0 victory over the Cardinals in Game 3.
Top-seeded Hutchinson (40-19) advances to the Central District Championship Tournament and will take on Fort Scott at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Eck Stadium in Wichita. Fort Scott swept Seward County on Saturday. The Blue Dragons reach the 40-win plateau for the ninth time in program history. Labette, which won its first postseason game in the current regional format in team history on Friday, ends its season at 17-30.
After an up-and-down regular season, Reyes earned the Game 3 start and pitched his best game of the season. Reyes (3-3) struck out 10 Labette batters in six shutout innings. He scattered six hits and walked two.
Labette launched three threats against Reyes and each time the Blue Dragon sophomore kept the Cardinals at arm's length.
Labette had runners at first and third with two out in the second inning and Reyes struck out Abner DeJesus to end the threat. After a double and two walks loaded the bases with one out in the third, Reyes reached down deep for strikeouts of DeJesus and Evan Jacoby to get out of that jam.
Leading 2-0 in the sixth, Reyes gave up a leadoff double to Drew White. The Blue Dragon starter then struck out the next three batters.
With his effort on Saturday, Reyes moved back Corey Brittan, Shawn Lewick and Mike Zagurski into fourth place on the Blue Dragon career strikeout list with 135 strikeouts with his 11th career victory.
Reyes gave up a leadoff single in the seventh and Summers entered the game at that point. Summers preceded to strikeout the side in the seventh. Labette had runners at first and third with one out in the eighth and Summers again escaped. Summers finished off the ninth with back-to-back strikeouts after a one-out walk.
Summers earned his second save of the season with three scoreless innings. Summers gave up just one hit and struck out five.
In the three-game series, Hutchinson pitching struck out 43 Labette batters.
Hutchinson was held to just four hits in Game 3.
The Blue Dragons took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second when Riley Metzger launched a solo home run, his second homer of the series and ninth of the year, over the center field walk. One inning later, Logan Sartori was hit by a pitch with two out. Dylan Nedved then hit a double high off the center field wall to drive in Sartori from first for a 2-0 lead.
The Dragons left the bases loaded in both the fifth and sixth innings and stranded eight runners on base. Labette left 10 runners on base.
Nedved was 2 for 3 with a double to lead the Blue Dragons. Ryan Moritz was 1 for 3.
Hutchinson is now 8-5 in opening-round series since the region went to the current format in 2004.