It took six pitchers and nearly 130 pitches just for the Emporia High baseball team to make it past the third inning of the second game of Monday’s doubleheader against Seaman.
Thankfully for the Spartans, the game was called after EHS went 1-2-3 — all three strikeouts — in its half of the third, putting an end to a miserable 20-1 loss to Seaman. The Vikings swept the doubleheader at Trusler Sports Complex, winning the first game 12-1 after six innings.
“Getting beat 20-1 ... is an embarrassment for a varsity game,” EHS coach Mike Strickland said. “We weren’t prepared to play today, and that’s my fault.”
Things went from bad to worse for the Spartans (1-3, 1-3 Centennial League) in the first inning of Game Two. Seaman had just scored nine runs in the sixth inning of Game One to run-rule the Spartans, and the Vikings picked up right where they left off by scoring 10 runs in the first inning against EHS starter Scott Peterson and reliever Taylor Clark.
Peterson began the game by sandwiching two walks around a fly out, then gave up a single to Zach Carlson to load the bases. Two more walks gave Seaman the lead at 2-0, which meant the end for Peterson.
“I just couldn’t find my groove,” Peterson said. “I couldn’t fill it up and get ground balls for the defense.”
Clark fared no better, however, as he gave up a bases-clearing double to Robbie Rea that put Seaman ahead, 5-0. Rea later scored on a throwing error by EHS catcher Harrison Stone on a steal attempt to make it 6-0.
Brandon Appelhanz then singled, Cory Deedrick walked and Jake Hosey singled Appelhanz home before he became the inning’s second out on an unassisted grounder by Adam Davey that scored Deedrick from third, making it 8-0.
Seaman’s Tyler Bean put the finishing touches on the 10-run inning with a two-run home run over the left-center field wall.
After back-to-back innings of allowing nine runs and 10 runs, Peterson said the Spartans simply “lost some heart.”
“It was pretty tough,” he said. “I think it got the entire team down. It affected the entire team, obviously.”
EHS scored once in its half of the first off back-to-back doubles by Jared Krause and Robert Keisler, but that would be all the offense for the Spartans.
Seaman scored two more runs in the second inning against EHS pitcher Michael Knight, and then the Vikings delivered the final punch with an eight-run, four-hit third inning against three more Spartan pitchers — Brandon Little, Seth Torres and Taylor Anderson.
Krause, Keisler and Cole Armitage each struck out in the bottom of the third, and the game was called.
In just three innings, Emporia High surrendered 20 runs on 11 hits and two errors. All told, Seaman rolled up 32 runs on 21 hits in the doubleheader, while the Spartans committed seven errors total and could only muster four hits in the two games combined.
“There were a lot of things we didn’t do very good tonight,” Strickland said. “We did a lot of things that compounded mistakes. They kept rolling on us with our mistakes. That was just something that we didn’t overcome all night.”
The Spartans must regroup quickly, as they play a make-up doubleheader at Topeka High on Wednesday.
Strickland insisted his squad would be ready to play.
“We are going to get better,” he said. “We need to play better, and I take responsibility for that.”
Monday at Emporia
Game One
Seaman 110 109 X — 12 10 0
Emporia 000 010 X — 1 1 5
Seaman: Bean and Lorson. Emporia: Armitage, Krause (6) and Clark. W — Bean. L — Armitage. 2B — Seaman: Carlson, Rea.
Game Two
Seaman (10)28 XXX X — 20 11 1
Emporia 100 XXX X — 1 3 2
Seaman: Rea and Lorson, Wells (3). Emporia: Peterson, Clark (1), Knight (2), Little (3), Torres (3), Anderson (3) and Stone. W — Rea. L — Peterson. 2B — Seaman: Davey, Rea, Wells. Emporia: Krause, Keisler. HR — Seaman: Bean.