Blues zone champs; punch ticket to state–Audio
Dodge City, KS (westernkansasnews.com)-Even before the Blues arrived at Demon Field Wednesday night, the message from their skipper less than 24 hours earlier rang loud and clear: score early and score often. Well it didn’t take long for that philosophy to kick into overdrive.
Finney County battered Great Bend into a 12-1 submission in the American Legion, Zone 7 Championship Game.
“Our seniors have been through a lot these past few years,” Blues starter Edgar Montoya said afterwards. “There were a couple of regional games that we could have won to get to state and never did. Tonight we came up with a clutch win.”
In stark contrast to Tuesday night when Finney County had to dig themselves out of a late, four-run deficit to beat Dodge City, the Blues made easy work of the Chiefs.
Lyle Befort’s squad wasted no time filling up the scoreboard. A four-run first, fueled by two, run-scoring hits, an RBI walk and a passed ball, chased Great Bend Starter Johnny Allende after just 19 pitches. His successor Tristan Hall, didn’t fare much better.
Hall lasted just an inning and a third-allowing four runs on four hits including Marcus Zapata’s bases-clearing blast in the second.
The hitters made life very easy on Montoya, who cruised through seven innings of four-hit ball.
“That’s a great thing when your offense gets you a lead early like that,” Montoya said. “When we got out early, I knew I just had to throw strikes.”
The Garden City High School grad looked like a surgeon, mixing up his pitches with pristine precision. He tossed 111 of them-72 for strikes.
But this night belonged to the offense. The Blues slugged out ten hits; seven of those coming with runners in scoring position. And when it finally came time to put the game on ice, Finney County did just that-ending the contest early because of the 10-run mercy rule.
Montoya definitely didn’t mind the early night.
“I’m just so proud of these seniors,” he said. “We’re moving on with high expectations, and hopefully we can meet them.”
The Blues move onto the state tournament in Hays next week. Check back for game times.
FINNEY BLUES (12) AT GREAT BEND CHIEFS (1)
FINNEY BLUES AB R H BI GREAT BEND CHIEFS AB R H BI
Robert Tomlin 4 2 3 2 Logan Zecha 3 0 0 0
Isaiah Rodriguez 4 1 1 1 Bryce Beck 4 0 1 0
Logan Dechant 2 3 0 0 Johnny Allende 2 0 1 0
Jake Curran 2 2 1 3 Jared Manna 2 0 0 0
Marcus Zapata 4 1 1 3 Tristan Hall 2 0 0 0
Edgar Montoya 3 0 2 1 Alex Diest 1 0 0 0
Ian Jones 4 1 1 0 Dillon Reiser 2 0 0 0
Mario Montoya 2 1 0 0 Tyler Nuss 1 0 1 0
David Acker 3 1 1 0 Braden Jones 3 0 1 0
Matt Zecha 2 0 0 0
Tristan Hall 3 1 0 0
Shane Wondra 2 0 0 0
TOTALS 28 12 10 10 TOTALS 27 1 4 0
FINNEY BLUES 440 130 00 -- 12
GREAT BEND CHIEFS 000 000 1x -- 1
LOB--FINNEY BLUES 8, GREAT BEND CHIEFS 8. ERR--Logan Dechant
(2), Edgar Montoya, Robert Tomlin, Dillon Reiser (2),
Tristan Hall. 2B--Robert Tomlin. HR--Marcus Zapata.
HBP--Mario Montoya (2), Jake Curran, Logan Dechant (2),
Isaiah Rodriguez, David Acker. SACF--Marcus Zapata. SB--Jake
Curran, Logan Dechant, Isaiah Rodriguez, Shane Wondra.
FINNEY BLUES IP H R ER BB SO HR
Edgar Montoya (W) 7.00 4 1 0 3 8 0
GREAT BEND CHIEFS
Johnny Allende (L) 0.33 3 4 4 2 0 0
Tristan Hall 1.33 4 4 4 0 0 1
Dillon Reiser 3.00 3 4 4 0 1 0
Tyler Nuss 1.33 0 0 0 2 1 0
Jared Manna 1.00 0 0 0 1 1 0
PB--Tristan Hall (2). WP--Tristan Hall. SO--Mario Montoya,
Logan Dechant, Isaiah Rodriguez, Jared Manna (2), Matt
Zecha, Johnny Allende, Bryce Beck, Braden Jones, Logan
Zecha, Shane Wondra. BB--Jake Curran (2), Logan Dechant,
Edgar Montoya, Robert Tomlin, Matt Zecha, Logan Zecha, Shane
Wondra.
