Royals beat Hornets to reach regional final, fall to Royall Panthers in heartbreaker
Owen Oppriecht slides past second base at the same time the throw gets by shortstop Clint Mitchell (left) and second baseman Andrew Mezera (right). It allowed Oppriecht to get to the bag safely. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Seneca’s Briar Wall delivers one of his four hits in the Royals win over the Hornets. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
The Hornets’ Cooper Lomas (left) slides into first base under the throw from Seneca pitcher Jack Gallagher to Jacob Payne. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Ben Bird fires a pitch as Cohen Redman guards the third base line while Seneca’s Jacob Payne moves towards home plate. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Seneca pitcher Jack Gallagher begins his delivery. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
The Royals' Dawson Davidson waits for a pitch to hit. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Senior Jacob Payne takes a lead off first base. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Hornets senior Alex Manning attempts to bunt against Seneca. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Hornet second baseman Andrew Mezera fires the ball back to the pitcher after a Seneca base hit. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Wauzeka-Steuben's Clint Mitchell smiles after drawing a walk. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Dakota Cox holds up at second base after a base hit. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
By Derick Kelly
The Seneca Royals baseball team hosted rival Wauzeka-Steuben on Tuesday, May 28 for a Division 4 Regional Semifinal game.
Royals starting pitcher Jack Gallagher worked around back-to-back one out singles by the Hornets’ Ben Bird and Cooper Lomas with back-to-back strikeouts to escape the inning unscathed.
The Royals offense gave Gallagher plenty of offensive support early on by scoring five runs on five hits and one walk to take a 5-0 lead after one inning.
Seneca would push across two more runs in the second inning to extend the lead to 7-0. The Hornets would get on the scoreboard in the third inning thanks to an infield error that scored Lomas from second base.
The Royals got three more runs in the third inning to put the game on the verge of being ended early due to ten-run rule at 10-1.
The Hornets had other plans as Brett Wagner and Bird opened up the fifth inning with back-to-back walks before a single by Cohen Redman two batters later scored Wagner to make the score 10-2. Jonah Klema singled to load the bases for the Hornets with just one out before Gallagher used a strikeout and a pop out to get out of the inning.
Seneca would add one final run in the bottom of the sixth inning on a bases loaded walk by Dawson Davidson to score Jackson Konichek that put the Royals on the verge of winning via ten-run rule before the Hornets got an infield pop-up to end the inning.
The first two batters of the seventh inning reached for the Hornets before Seneca pitcher Jacob Payne retired the next three Hornets to earn the 11-2 win for the Royals, who improved to 17-5 with the win while the Hornets end the season at 8-10 overall.
The Royals were led at the plate by Briar Wall (4-for-5 with two doubles, two runs scored and two RBIs), Davidson (3-for-3 with three runs scored, one RBI and one walk), Hunter Hagensick (2-for-4 with a double, one run scored and three RBIs) and Gallagher (2-for-3 with one run scored, one RBI and one walk). Gallagher also earned the pitching win after allowing two runs on four hits and four walks with seven strikeouts in five innings pitched.
Bird (2-for-3 with a walk), Klema (2-for-4), Lomas (1-for-3 with one run scored and one walk) and Redman (1-for-3 with one RBI) paced the Hornets offense in the loss. Wauzeka-Steuben will graduate six seniors - Bird, Gabe Kapinus, Klema, Alex Manning, Redman and Nicholas Walz.
The third seed Royals traveled to Elroy on Wednesday evening to face second seed Royall and immediately put the hosts on upset alert by scoring four runs in the top of the first inning.
The Panthers would respond by scoring two runs with two outs to make the score 4-2 after one inning. Royall would add a run in the fourth and fifth innings to tie the game up at 4-4.
The Royals defense overcame a seventh inning in which the first three batters all reached base for Royall. Seneca recorded a force out at home plate for the first out before Kaden Roberts got back-to-back strikeouts to send the game to extra innings.
The Royals offense nearly finished the momentum shift back to Seneca’s side in the top of the eighth inning as Hagensick reached base on a single with one out before stealing second base and advancing to third base on a fly ball by Gallagher to give the Royals a runner in scoring position with two outs. The Royals were unable to score Hagensick and the game went to the bottom of the eighth inning still tied at 4.
The first two Royall batters of the eighth inning each reached base before Seneca retired each of the next two batters to get two quick outs. The next batter however singled to left field on the first pitch they saw and the Royals season came to a unfortunate end in the regional final for a third consecutive season.
The Royals offense was led by Davidson (2-for-5 with one run scored), Gage Wall (2-for-3 with one run scored) and Owen Oppriecht (1-for-1 with one run scored and three walks). Roberts (one run allowed on four hits and no walks with three strikeouts in three innings pitched) took the hard luck loss on the mound.
Seneca ends the season 17-6 overall and will graduate two seniors in Grant Nagel and Jacob Payne.
