Kansas high school state baseball: Maize South stuns Bishop Carroll in 5A tournament
Chad Christensen has been coaching baseball for 26 years and the past week with the Maize South baseball team has taught him he still hasn’t seen every possible ending the game has to offer.
Just last week, the Mavericks punched their ticket to the Kansas Class 5A state baseball tournament in the most odd fashion — winning a 4-3 game against Eisenhower on just one hit and the walk-off run on an infield pop-out error.
“We don’t care how we win, just that we win,” Christensen said. “I told the kids, ‘Just go out there and win ugly.’”
That bizarre finish could be the start of a special run, as Maize South now finds itself in the state semifinals after pulling off a 7-over-2 seed upset of Bishop Carroll in a 5-0 victory at Wichita State’s Eck Stadium on Thursday.
The Mavericks (17-6) will play Blue Valley Southwest (20-3) in Friday’s 1:15 p.m. semifinal.
“They’re locked in and they’re believing in each other,” Christensen said. “They’re pulling for each other and it’s been really fun to see this team’s chemistry progress. Whether we’re on offense or defense, every guy is on the rail rooting for our guys out there.”
Up against one of the most powerful offenses in Class 5A in Carroll (21-2), Maize South starter Isaac Epp delivered a gem. He threw six scoreless innings, holding Carroll to three hits with six strikeouts. Aaron Geisler came on in the seventh inning to finish the shutout victory for the Mavericks.
“Isaac isn’t a kid who is going to overpower you,” Christensen said. “I think he might have touched 81 mph, but he throws three pitches for strikes and has great command. And defensively, our kids know balls are going to be put into play and they played a clean slate tonight with no errors. Against a great team like Carroll, you can’t give them any more (at bats) than what they’ve earned.”
Maize South broke the scoreless tie in the fourth inning by scoring a run off a Carroll error, then added two more runs the following inning on an RBI double by Collin Shields and sacrifice bunt from Kaden McBratney. The Mavericks tacked on insurance runs in the seventh inning on a 2-RBI single by Owen Bailey.
“The kids were anxious to play the game and they’ve just been grinders all year and we knew we had to grind it out again against Carroll,” Christensen said. “We pitched it well, we defended well and we hit well. We had to grind for runs and we executed tonight.”
Meanwhile on the other side of the bracket, top-seeded Andover Central had few problems putting away St. James Academy in a 6-0 victory behind a one-hit shutout from Rece Wilson, who had no walks in a tidy 75-pitch complete-game performance.
The Jaguars (22-1) will play Hays (18-3) in Friday’s 11 a.m. semifinal.
Wilson’s mastery was needed for much of the game, as Andover Central clung to a 1-0 lead after four innings. But the Jaguars tacked off five runs in the fifth and sixth innings for the comfortable win, as Lou Blackman, Easton Elliot, Jack Bell and Cooper Tabor all had RBI hits.
Sedgwick rallies for come-from-behind, walk-off win to reach 2-1A semifinals
He’s the all-time leader in wins on the mound and it turns out, he’s pretty clutch at the plate too.
Sedgwick senior Nolan Crumrine pitched a complete game on the mound and delivered the walk-off RBI hit in the bottom of the seventh inning to finish a 3-2, come-from-behind win for Sedgwick over Belle Plaine in the quarterfinals of the Class 2-1A state tournament at the Great Bend Sports Complex.
The second-seeded Cardinals (23-1) will play Spearville (13-9) in Friday’s 11 a.m. semifinal.
Belle Plaine and Sedgwick traded runs in the first inning and remained tied until the top of the sixth inning when Colby Barton scored on an inside-the-park home run following a Sedgwick error in the outfield to give Belle Plaine a 2-1 lead. But Sedgwick equalized the score in the bottom-half of the inning on an RBI single by Charles Harjo.
That set up a dramatic bottom of the seventh inning when Sedgwick put two runners on when Connor Tillman and Remington Nold both walked. With two outs, Crumrine hit a ground ball that Belle Plaine could not record the final out on and Tillman crossed for the game-winning, walk-off run.
Clearwater upsets Mulvane on Toothaker’s extra-inning, game-winning hit
The only upset of the day in the Class 4A state tournament at Salina’s Dean Evans Stadium on Thursday came from No. 6 seed Clearwater, which upset Mulvane, 3-2, on a game-winning RBI double by Brock Toothaker in the top of the eighth inning.
Clearwater (15-8) will play Clay Center (20-3) in Friday’s 11 a.m. semifinal.
In a pitching duel between Clearwater’s Jake Wellington and Mulvane’s Mason Ellis, who both lasted until the sixth inning, the game was decided when Toothaker doubled to the cap in right-center field. Mulvane had the game-tying run on second base, but Clearwater reliever Cole Keesling closed the door.
In another 4A quarterfinal game, Bishop Miege pounced on Circle early in a 9-5 win. The Thunderbirds had RBI hits by Braden Hagemann and Daniel Stovall.
Collegiate, Hesston both fall in 3A quarterfinals
There wasn’t much that went right in the Class 3A quarterfinals held at Kansas State’s Tointon Family Stadium for Collegiate or Hesston.
For second-seeded Collegiate, it was a disappointing end to a superb 19-5 season in an 11-0 loss to Minneapolis where the Spartans finished with just two hits in the game.
Fifth-seeded Hesston (17-6) didn’t fare much better, as Frontenac scored 13 runs in the first inning of an eventual 17-3 victory over the Swathers. Hesston’s Brady Cox provided the lone highlight of the game on a three-run home run in the third inning.
Inclement weather postpones 6A tournament until Friday
Inclement weather on Thursday forced the opening round of the Class 6A tournament hosted in Fort Scott at the LaRoche Baseball Complex to be postponed until Friday.
Third-seeded Derby (18-4) will play No. 6 Blue Valley West (17-5) in the second game of the day.
Thursday’s state baseball tournament game scores
Class 5A
No. 1 Andover Central 6, No. 8 St. James Academy 0
No. 5 Hays 6, No. 4 Topeka Seaman 2
No. 7 Maize South 5, No. 2 Bishop Carroll 0
No. 3 Blue Valley Southwest 2, No. 6 De Soto 1
Class 4A
No. 1 Paola 7, No. 8 Eudora 4
No. 4 Bishop Miege 9, No. 5 Circle 4
No. 2 Clay Center 2, No. 7 Topeka Hayden 1
No. 6 Clearwater 3, No. 3 Mulvane 2 (8 innings)
Class 3A
No. 1 Anderson County 1, No. 8 Hugoton 0
No. 4 Frontenac 17, No. 5 Hesston 3
No. 7 Minneapolis 11, No. 2 Wichita Collegiate 0
No. 3 Rock Creek 8, No. 6 Bishop Ward 5
Class 2-1A
No. 1 Ellis 5, No. 8 Maranatha Christian Academy 4
No. 4 Valley Falls 3, No. 5 Pittsburg-St. Mary’s Colgan 2 (15 innings)
No. 2 Sedgwick 3, No. 7 Belle Plaine 2
No. 6 Spearville 4, No. 3 Colony-Crest 2
Friday’s schedule
Class 6A (at Fort Scott’s LaRoche Baseball Complex)
No. 2 Gardner Edgerton (20-2) vs. No. 7 Washburn Rural (17-5), TBD
No. 3 Derby (18-4) vs. No. 6 Blue Valley West (17-5), 25 minutes after Game 1
No. 1 Blue Valley (20-2) vs. No. 8 Lawrence Free State (13-9), 25 minutes after Game 2
No. 4 Olathe West (18-4) vs. No. 5 Manhattan (18-4), 25 minutes after Game 3
Class 5A (at Wichita State’s Eck Stadium)
No. 1 Andover Central (22-1) vs. No. 5 Hays (18-3), 11 a.m.
No. 7 Maize South (17-6) vs. Blue Valley Southwest (20-3), 1:15 p.m.
Third place, 3:30 p.m.
Championship, 5:45 p.m.
Class 4A (at Salina’s Dean Evans Stadium)
No. 2 Clay Center (20-3) vs. No. 6 Clearwater (15-8), 11 a.m.
No. 1 Paola (21-2) vs. No. 4 Bishop Miege (16-7), 1:15 p.m.
Third place, 3:30 p.m.
Championship, 5:45 p.m.
Class 3A (at Kansas State’s Tointon Family Stadium)
No. 7 Minneapolis (16-6) vs. No. 3 Rock Creek (19-5), 11 a.m.
No. 1 Anderson County (21-3) vs. No. 4 Frontenac (18-5), 1:15 p.m.
Third place, 3:30 p.m.
Championship, 5:45 p.m.
Class 2-1A (at Great Bend Sports Complex)
No. 2 Sedgwick (23-1) vs. No. 6 Spearville (13-9), 11 a.m.
No. 1 Ellis (20-0) vs. No. 4 Valley Falls (20-2), 1:15 p.m.
Third place, 3:30 p.m.
Championship, 5:45 p.m.
This story was originally published May 28, 2021 at 6:05 AM.
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