Hugoton defeats Scott City, falls to Goodland in regional final

Scott City, Kan. (westernkansasnews.com)–Just by looking solely on records heading into Tuesday’s Class 4A, Division II Regional Baseball Tournament in Scott City, you would probably put Hugoton in pencil to win the regional. At the end of the day, it was the three-seeded Goodland Cowboys stunning the field with a win over rival Colby in the semi-final 5-3, and upsetting Hugoton 4-3 in the regional final.

In the first game of the day, the one-win Scott City Beavers gave it all they had against the sixth ranked team in 4A, Division II. Hugoton scored the first run of the game on a wild pitch in the bottom of the second inning to take a 1-0 lead. That held up until the top of the fourth, when Gustavo Gonzalez sacrificed hit in Kyle Cure to tie the game at one. In the bottom of the inning, the Eagles took the lead for good, scoring three runs. Two of them came on a Scott City (1-18) error. Yates Sutton drove in the fourth run in the bottom of the inning on an infield single with the bases loaded and two outs. The Beavers rallied for two runs in the fifth, as Cure drove in Sloan Baker, and Mel Turley, a courtesy runner for Keigun Wells, scored on an Eagle throwing error. Hugoton added a run in the bottom of the fifth on a Ross Davis sacrifice fly, that scored Nick Frederick from third. Davis picked up the win, going all seven innings, allowing three runs on six hits with seven strikeouts. Scott City’s Sloan Baker took the loss, giving up five runs on five hits in six innings on the mound, and struck out six batters. The Eagles had the lead-off runner reach base in five of six innings at bat, with four of them scoring.

In the regional final, Goodland (7-13) trailed 2-1, before they rallied for three runs in the fourth inning to lead 4-2. Hugoton (19-2) did rally for a run in the bottom of the seventh, and had one runner tagged out at the plate. With two on in the bottom of the seventh, the Eagles had a foul out to the catcher to end the game, propelling the Cowboys to the regional championship.

Goodland will play in the 4A, Division II State Baseball Tournament in Pratt on Thursday, May 29, against an opponent yet to be determined.