LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — the Bulldogs and the Spires locked horns in a pair of great battles on Saturday (Mar. 1) as Saint Mary took game one of the day while the Bulldogs rebounded nicely and took game two.
GAME ONE- Saint Mary-3 McPherson-2
It was the home team that struck first off a pair of mistakes by the Bulldogs as a hit batter with the bases loaded and a passed ball in the bottom half of the third frame gave the Spires a 2-0 lead. These pair of runs by Saint Mary were the only two they'd score until the end as the arms of
Matthew Bomersback,
Campbell Lyons and
Francisco Paradis locked down the Spire bats as the three pitchers combined for nine strikeouts across their eight combined innings pitched.
While the Spire bats were kept cold, the Bulldog bats struggled to cash in on their opportunities as the team tallied 15 hits in the game but left nine runners on base. Come to the seventh inning, the Bulldogs finally broke through as
Jared Kramp and
Dawson Walters collected RBI singles to tie the game up at two runs apiece. Both squads kept each other off the boards until the Spires cashed in off a walk off RBI double in the bottom of the tenth to bag a big victory.
GAME TWO- McPherson-4 Saint Mary-1
Similar to the first game, the Spires were able to score the game's first run in the bottom of the first inning off a sacrifice fly to give the home squad a quick 1-0 lead. Strong pitching from the Bulldogs once again completely shut down the bats of Saint Mary as
Jameson Caro and
Matthew Vigil combined for nine strikeouts and surrendered just six hits throughout the entire contest.
Thanks to the bat of
Marcus Patton, the Bulldogs were able to take a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth inning with a two run RBI double.
Dawson Walters was able to add to the lead in the top of the sixth with an RBI single into right field while
Koen Gakstatter followed him up with a sacrifice fly to make it a 4-1 advantage for MC. The Spires were unable to find any answers as the Bulldogs secured the bounce back victory.
The Bulldogs will face the Spires one more time in the rubber match of this three game series tomorrow, March 2. First pitch is set for 1:00 p.m.
