Bee Jays celebrate after winning league title

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The Liberal Bee Jays celebrate Saturday night’s 12-1 win over Dodge City by spraying closing pitcher Preston Roberge with water bottles. The Bee Jay clinched the Rocky Mountain Baseball League title with the win. L&T photo/Earl Watt

EARL WATT

• Leader & Times

Two weeks ago a bid to the NBC World Series seemed bleak, and a Rocky Mountain title out of reach.

Seven straight Rocky Mountain Baseball League wins later, the Bee Jays not only received a bid to the national tournament, but they also claimed the league title outright, and after knocking off Dodge City 12-1 Saturday night, the Bee Jays grabbed bottles of water and doused each other in celebration of the dramatic finish to the season, and first-year head coach Caeden Trenkle stood soaked after having the water cooler dumped on him.

The Bee Jays jumped out early with five runs in the first inning off a two-RBI single from Noah Giovannelli, and RBI double from Cal Anthony, a sacrifice fly form Kaden Isola and an RBI single by Trenton Uyeda.

The A’s scored a run in the third before the Bee Jays added four more runs in the fourth thanks to an error, a Giovannelli sacrifice fly and a two-RBI single by Isola, and Liberal led 9-1.

The Bee Jays took advantage of another Dodge City error in the sixth to score Cole Manuel and Giovannelli, and Isola added an RBI double to score Drew Gartman, and the Bee Jays had a 12-1 lead.

The Bee Jay defense made two solid plays on line drives by A’s batters for outs, and after a Dodge City single, Preston Roberge struck out the final batter to secure the run-rule win.

While Liberal was winning, Hay lost to Boulder, give the Bee Jays the league title outright.

The win was the seventh consecutive official league game in a row and completed a dramatic turnaround the led to the Rocky Mountain League title and an invite to the NBC World Series.