TOPEKA, Kan. – Washburn starter
Casey Steward finished his six-inning outing without allowing a hit and striking out 10 while the Ichabod offense put up seven runs in the opening inning and secured the series win with a 9-3 victory on Saturday afternoon. Washburn's final home game of the regular season will be on Sunday at 1 p.m. The six Ichabod seniors will be recognized on the field 15 minutes prior to first pitch.
Washburn (27-18, 19-10 MIAA) went through the batting order and then some in the first inning as the Ichabods scored seven runs on five hits and received four free bases. Leadoff man
Andrew Schmidtlein reached first after getting hit by a 2-2 pitch and then moved over to third on
Cale Savage's single. Savage swiped second base to get into scoring position and with two outs,
Ike Book brought in two runs with a single to left center. Book stole second base and made it home on
Easton Bruce's single through the right side.
Shane Morrow and
Caden Bressler drew back-to-back walks to load up the bases for
Blake Scott, who single to the pitcher and brought in one run. With the bases still loaded, Schmidtlein ripped a three-run double to center field to push the Ichabod lead to 7-0.
Steward retired the side in order in the third and fifth innings and still had not allowed a hit heading into the sixth. In the top of the sixth inning with one out, the Rogers State (23-19, 11-18 MIAA) batter struck out swinging but reached first base on the wild pitch. The next two batters got on with walks, but Steward got his last two batters out with a strikeout and a foul popup to the catcher.
After a pitching change to start the seventh, the Hillcats got on the board with back-to-back home runs to erase the no-hitter and trim Washburn's lead to 7-2.
The Ichabods got those runs back in the bottom of the seventh. Schmidtlein worked a one out walk and advanced to second on Savage's infield single.
Cal Watkins recorded an RBI single up the middle and Savage made it home on a failed pickoff attempt error to put Washburn's lead at 9-2.
Rogers State added one final run in the ninth inning, hitting a leadoff pinch hit home run, before Washburn closed out the win with a 1-4-3 double play.
Washburn finished the game outhitting Rogers State, 11-4. All 10 Ichabods that stepped up to the plate reached base at least once. Book was 2-3 with a walk, two RBI, and one run scored. Savage and Bruce also had two hits each with Savage scoring twice and Bruce scoring once and driving in a run. Schmidtlein reached base five times with a double, walk, and three hit by pitches. He also collected three RBI and scored twice.
On the mound, Steward improved to 3-4 after throwing six no-hit innings. He walked five and struck out 10 on the afternoon.
Cal Leonard threw a scoreless eighth inning and struck out one.
