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.”
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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