As the warmup period ended before his team’s game against Blue Valley West Saturday night, Emporia coach Steve Schlup was warming up his pitchers and deciding who would make an unscheduled start because Brett Lechien’s arm was sore.
Casey Atchison got the call and pitched the first five innings of a 4-2 win that gave the Emporia AAA team a Zone championship and an invitation to the state tournament in Dodge City, which begins Wednesday.
Blue Valley West threatened early when it loaded the bases with one out in the second inning, but Atchison induced a popout and flyout to end the inning without any damage.
Atchison, who earned the win for Emporia, surrendered both of the Jaguar runs. A one-out double led to a run in the fourth inning and three walks and a wild pitch allowed them to score another in the fifth.
“He didn’t hit anybody tonight,” coach Steve Schlup said. “He did a great job, all the balls went to the right side and we just kept putting our guys right where they were hitting it all night long.”
When Lechien told Schlup he was too sore to start the game, he told him he felt well enough to pitch in relief. He came on in the sixth inning and pitched four scoreless innings to finish the game.
He faced 13 batters, one more than the minimum. He allowed two Jaguar baserunners to reach base, one on a single and the other on a hard-hit ball to third base that was ruled an error. One of the runners was negated by a double play. He struck out three, including the final two batters of the game. Blue Valley West went down 1-2-3 in Lechien’s first and final innings of work.
“It (his arm) wasn’t really hurting when I was on the mound,” Lechien said. “But earlier it was.”
Emporia used a three-run first inning to take a lead it never lost. Matt Fry opened the inning by getting hit by a pitch and Lechien followed by drawing a walk. Jacob Loucks brought in Fry with a double, Lechien scored on a groundout and an Atchison single brought in Loucks.
The only Emporia offense after the first inning involved Lechien scoring on a sacrifice fly by James Rodriguez in the fifth inning.
“We didn’t strike out very much at all against their pitching,” Schlup said. “And we put the ball in play. If you put the ball in play and make them make a play, then you’re going to be pretty successful.”
Loucks was the only Emporia player to have multiple hits. His two doubles were the AAAs’ only extra-base hits. Lechien had a single and reached base five times, drawing four walks.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I was pretty patient.”
Emporia will open state play at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday against Dodge City.
Saturday at Soden’s Grove
Emporia 4, Blue Valley West 2
Blue Valley West 000 110 000 — 2 5 1
Emporia 300 010 00x — 4 7 1
WP — Atchison. LP — Eggen.
2B — BVW: Singer. EMP: Loucks 2.
justaflushaway (anonymous) says...
well. you want to save some tax money,, will anyone with a set of balls actually admit how much TAX money will be spent on all of the games and buses and Chevy suburbans that will have to be driven and all the stops at Mcdonalds to feed these fat coaches and students.
My guess is NO, that no one is suppose to know how much is spent on sports at this high school, as well as all the rest of the TAX slurping schools.
July 26, 2010 at 5:25 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
justaflushaway (anonymous) says...
“I was pretty patient.” coach Steve Schlup said, because he knew that McDonald's was on the way out of town.
July 26, 2010 at 9:15 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
wildcatnurse (anonymous) says...
Pretty positive that Legion ball is paid for by the parents, not our tax dollars. Might want to double check your facts before you start spewing mean, hateful things.
July 26, 2010 at 9:36 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Dubs87 (anonymous) says...
justaflushaway...
I played legion ball for 5 years, and its paid for by the parents not tax dollars,
another point legion ball is not a high school sport they are to completely different programs,
and third are you saying you dont want kids to be playing sports? rather them be inside all day playing video games or something?
i agree with wildcatnurse you should probably double check your facts....
July 27, 2010 at 2:19 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
romanmurray (anonymous) says...
Atta boy Casey!! lol and "justflushaway" your an idiot. Just because you lead a miserable life doesn't mean you make ours anymore difficult. So please be respectful to the players and coaches cuz some of them are our friends and family, but then again what do you know about respect.
July 28, 2010 at 9:19 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
sherryh (anonymous) says...
Thank you wildcat nurse....high school baseball is over pretty much over by the time school is out.....parents and private donations help fund the legion maybe if justaflush would get off the pot and spend some time outside around these sports they might know what they are talking about. Someone's size has no bearing on how good of a coach they are or a player.
July 28, 2010 at 9:44 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )