TOPEKA – The Hays Eagles Senior American Legion baseball team lost their final pool play game 8-3 to Iola but bounced back to beat the Topeka Senators 4-2 in the third-place game at the Senators season opening tournament Sunday at McDonald Park.
Garrett Wellbrock (1-0) scattered eight hits and allowed one earned run with five strikeouts and no walks in the complete game victory in Sunday’s finale. Wellbrock and Brady Kreutzer both doubled and combined for three of the Eagles six hits. Carson Spray had two hits and drove in a run.
After the Senators scored in the top of the first, the Eagles (3-1) answered with three in the bottom of the inning and never trailed again. Remington Cox drove in two runs on a fielders choice.
Kreutzer doubled with two outs in the fourth scoring Gage Porter to make the score 4-1.
The Senators put together back-to-back singles with one out in the sixth and scored a run on a groundout.
Jack Fields made a diving catch in left center with a runner at first and one out in the seventh. Wellbrock followed with a strikeout of the Senators No. 2 hitter to end the game.
The Eagles committed five errors which resulted in five unearned runs in the loss to Iola earlier in the day. Dalton Dale (0-1) allowed three earned runs with four strikeouts and four walks over five innings and took the loss. Brady Kreutzer allowed one hit over two scoreless innings to close the game.
The Eagles grabbed the early lead with three runs in the bottom of the first but the Indians took advantage of a leadoff hit by pitch and two errors to score four in the second and led the rest of the way.
Derrick
Riggs had two of the Eagles four hits and drove in two runs.
The Hays 17U Junior Legion finishes
runner-up at the Jim Allen Memorial Wood Bat Tournament in Ottawa over the weekend.
The 15U Eagles opened their season with a pair of run-rule routs over Buhler
Friday. The Eagles won 23-2 in three innings and 13-5 in five innings.
All three teams will be in Oak Grove, Missouri for a tournament this weekend.