Great Bend got a bases-loaded, two-out single in the bottom of the seventh inning that scored the game-winning run to defeat the Emporia High baseball team, 3-2, Thursday night in the Class 5A Regional in Great Bend.
With the game tied at 2 heading into the bottom of the final frame, Landon Sciacca singled with one out to get the Panthers’ rally started. After a flyout for the second out, EHS starter Cole Armitage then walked Jason Sell and allowed an infield single to Brad Holt to load the bases for Derek Jonas, who drove an offering from Armitage into shallow center to score Great Bend courtesy runner Logan Leuenberger from third to end the game.
“We played a good ballgame,” EHS coach Mike Strickland said. “It was just one of those hits that got through.”
The loss ended the Spartans’ season with a 4-17 record.
Emporia battled all game long with the eventual Regional-champion Panthers, but in the end, it was the Spartans inability to get anything going at the plate that doomed them. EHS could only muster three hits against Great Bend’s Matt Patzner, who struck out 10 Emporia High batters.
“We just didn’t hit well enough to win,” Strickland said. “Their pitcher kept us off balance the whole game. When you don’t get hits and leave two runners stranded and they get 10 strikeouts, it’s a tough way to lose.”
Thanks to a solo home run by Trent Mauler in the first inning, Great Bend took an early 1-0 lead. Emporia then took the lead in the fourth inning, scoring two runs to make it 2-1.
Taylor Clark singled and Armitage drew a walk to put two on, and after Jared Johnson and Harrison Stone struck out, Clark and Armitage moved up one base each on a wild pitch. The Great Bend catcher, trying to make a play, threw the ball to third to try to catch Clark, but the ball went off the third baseman’s glove and into left field, which allowed Clark to score and Armitage to move up to third.
The batter, Taylor Anderson, singled to drive home Armitage to give EHS the 2-1 advantage.
But Great Bend would rally, tying the game with a single run in the bottom of the fifth, which set up the final-inning victory for the Panthers.
“It’s been a rough spring,” Strickland said. “The kids have been frustrated. We’ve lost a lot of one-run ballgames.
“We had our chances, we just couldn’t get enough going to win.”
Class 5A Regionals
Thursday at Great Bend
Great Bend 3, Emporia 2
Emporia 000 200 0 — 2 3 1
Great Bend 100 010 1 — 3 4 3
Armitage and Clark. Patzner and Sciacca. W — Patzner. L — Armitage. 2B — GB: Holt. HR — GB: Mauler.