Bishop Ward’s improbable run in the Kansas Class 4A Division II state baseball tournament is over, after falling in the state championship game to Baxter Springs, 13-3, in Emporia, Kan.
Ward went 9-13 in the regular season before rolling off a postseason run that included upsetting 19-3 Pratt and 15-8 Topeka-Hayden.
Baxter Springs jumped to a 5-0 lead early, and Ward closed to within 5-3. That slumped in comparison to Baxter Springs, though, which rattled off seven straight unanswered runs.
“We got some runners on in the fourth inning, but they made a pitching change, and got out of the inning,” Bishop Ward head coach Dennis Hurla said. “It was still an outstanding effort from our guys.”
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With five seniors on this year’s Bishop Ward team, the Cyclones used experience to keep improving through the end of the year, sparking a run through the playoffs before ending the year 11-14.
“They did outstanding through the whole year,” Hurla said. “They endured a lot of ups and downs and really hung together. Everyone kept getting better and was playing their best at the end. They had to endure a lot of failure and I’m extremely happy what these guys accomplished this year.”
Class 4A Division I
Only a two-hour, 10-minute weather delay could slow down Andover Central in a 9-4 victory over Paola in the semifinals Sunday in Salina, Kan.
Paola got within 6-4 on Justin Hieber’s two-run single, but Andover Central scored three times in the top of the seventh.
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