Hutchinson CC Sports Information

LIBERAL – The Hutchinson Community College baseball team parlayed a couple of timely home runs by Jenner Steele and Sterling Sutcliffe and strong pitching performances in both ends of a doubleheader to take the first two games of a Jayhawk West series with Seward County on Friday.

Steele hit a go-ahead two-run home run in the sixth inning to back up six strong innings on the mound from Zach Firmature in Hutchinson's 3-2 victory in Game 1 at Brent Gould Field.

Sutcliffe's grand slam was the part of a seven-run fourth inning and bullpen pitchers Sammy Sanchez and Tyler Delong combined for 7 2-3 innings to solid work as Hutchinson won the second game of the series, 8-2.

The Blue Dragons improve to 10-6 overall and won their fifth Jayhawk West game in a row, improving to 5-10. Seward County is now 5-11 overall and 2-4 in the West. Games 3 and 4 will be played on Saturday at Hobart-Detter Field with scheduled game times at 1 and 3:30 p.m.

GAME 1 RECAP
Firmature improved to 3-1 on the mound with his best overall performance of the season in Game 1.

Firmature tossed a season-long six innings and allowed seven hits, two unearned runs and one walk. Firmature struck out seven. The sophomore pitcher had to also work around four Blue Dragon errors to keep his team in the game.

Firmature got a 5-4-3 double play in the second, picked off a runner at first in the third and struck out the side in the fourth.

After retiring the first two batters of the fifth, the Saints took a 2-1 lead as Kyle Bigford scored on Hutch's fourth error of the game in the bottom of the fifth.

The Blue Dragons gave Firmature the lead in the sixth. The first two Blue Dragons of the sixth were retired. Ben McLaughlin singled to center and then on a 1-0 pitch, Steele hit his fourth home run of the year to give Hutch a 3-2 lead.

Firmature worked a scoreless sixth and Cade Fenton earned his second save of the season with a scoreless ninth.

The Blue Dragons out-hit Seward County 9-8 with two hits each from Steele, Mason Lowe and Sutcliffe, who tied the game at 1-all in the second with an RBI single that scored Steele.

GAME 2 RECAP
Tied at 1-all after three, the Blue Dragons exploded in the fourth inning.

With one out in the fourth, P.J. Loucks doubled, Drew Reetz walked and Cole Cosman was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Sutcliffe then hit the Blue Dragons' second grand slam of the season to center to give Hutchinson a 5-0 lead.

Two batters later after a Jack Torosian single, Lowe hit a two-run home run over the left-field wall to make it 7-0. Loucks added an RBI single to cap Hutchinson's seven-run inning, where the Dragons sent 12 batters to the plate and collected six of their 11 hits in the game.

McLaughlin started the game on the mound for the Blue Dragons, but left after one inning. Sanchez (2-1) pitched five innings out of the bullpen for the win. He allowed six hits and two earned runs with one walk and struck out five.

After Zane Covey worked into a bit of trouble in the seventh, Delong entered to get a strikeout and groundout in the seventh as the Saints left the bases loaded. Delong worked 2 2-3 scoreless innings with two hits allowed and a walk while striking out three.

Torosian, Callahan, Loucks and Sutcliffe all had two hits each for the Blue Dragons. Sutcliffe's grand slam was his fourth homer of the season and Lowe hit his first of 2021.