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| Spring Hill Broncos upset defending state champs to reach title game |
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| Sports | |||
| Written by Gene Morris | |||
| Wednesday, 02 June 2010 08:00 | |||
SALINA — Spring Hill High School had its baseball season ended by Bishop Ward for the third consecutive season.  This time, however, instead of ending its run in what the Broncos called a state-tournament regional two years in a row, Spring Hill didn’t cross paths with Bishop Ward until the Class 4A state championship game Saturday evening at Dean Evans Stadium. Bishop Ward used four base hits in the top of the third inning to take advantage of two Spring Hill errors, scoring four runs to blow the game open at 5-1. Spring Hill answered with one run in the home half of the third, two runs in the fifth and one in the seventh, before falling 6-4. Bishop Ward (16-6) captured its seventh state baseball title in eight years. The Spring Hill Broncos (19-7) were making the program’s sixth trip to the state championship game. Spring Hill won titles in 1972, 1987 and 1993. The Broncos added the team’s third runner-up trophy to the baseball collection, placing second in 1995, 1998 and 2010. Nathan Keegan hit a clutch two-out RBI single to center, scoring the game-winning run in a 2-1 comeback victory against Scott City as Spring Hill registered its third one-run win of the postseason in the opening round of the state tournament Friday. “It was amazing,” Keegan said. “I had been struggling all week in practice, so to be able to come through when the team needed me was the best feeling in the world.” The Broncos defeated the Paola Panthers 7-6 and the Iola Mustangs 4-3 in the regionals before defeating the Osawatomie Trojans 5-2 to advance to state. Scott City tested Spring Hill, but Jordan Miller allowed just one run on four hits while striking out nine. It was a scoreless game until Scott City’s Ron Baker homered to left center to put the Beavers on the scoreboard 1-0. “We scare ourselves a little bit too much,” Miller said. “We hit the ball well and hit it hard, but just right at them. We knew they would start falling in for hits.” Miller singled with one out in the sixth. He scored on an error which allowed Bradley Smith to reach base. Smith stole second. Down to its final three outs, Keegan doubled to plate Smith and lead the Broncos to victory. “Jordan Miller kept us in the game with his pitching,” Spring Hill coach David Londene said. “This year, our pitching has given us an opportunity to win a lot of close ball games. “We don’t press and we have been able to come up with key hits,” Londene said. “We had five hits tonight and hit some well that were right at people.” Spring Hill struck for four runs in the first inning and four runs in the fourth in a 10-2 victory against the defending state champion Topeka-Hayden Wildcats in the semifinals Saturday afternoon. Derrick Koehn went three-for-four, driving home three runs for the Broncos. Miller scored three runs. Adam Nunn and Smith each had two runs scored. Ryan Otto went the distance for Spring Hill, yielding just two runs on four base hits. He pitched around four base on balls and struck out six. Spring Hill scored 10 runs on 12 hits in the game for its largest margin of victory in the post-season. It was Spring Hill’s fifth consecutive playoff win. The Broncos defeated the Wildcats by eight runs after winning its previous four games by a total of six runs. Four Spring Hill errors were too much to overcome in the title game. Bishop Ward pounced on two third-inning errors to score four runs and went on to win the championship game 6-4. Zach Pickett started the game for Spring Hill, allowing four runs in four innings of work. Miller pitched 2 and 2/3 innings of scoreless relief as the Broncos trimmed a four-run deficit (5-1) to two runs (6-4) by the seventh inning. Spring Hill brought the potential go-ahead to the plate with two on and one out in the seventh, but came up one clutch hit away from winning it all again, grounding into a double play. Members of the Class 4A state runner-up Spring Hill Broncos are: Shane Bontrager, Derek Bybee, Brady Donahue, Bryce Duncan, Nathan Keegan, Carson King, Derrick Koehn, Dustin Masters, Zachary McCloud, Jordan Miller, Adam Nunn, Ryan Otto, Zach Pickett, Dalton Rudy, Dylan Shafer, Robbie Sharemet, Bradley Smith and Miles Updike. David Londene was the head coach. Assistant coaches are Paul Young and Chris Smith.
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