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Friday
March 29th, 2024

bjpitching12Hayden Arnold tosses a pitch against Haysville Wednesday at Brent Gould Field. Arnold pitched five scoreless innings and only allowed one hit while stirking out seven and not allowing a walk. His strong start helped the Bee Jays knock off Haysville 12-3. L&T photo/Earl WattBy EARL WATT

  • Leader & Times

After scorching the Oklahoma Mudcats for 14 runs Tuesday in a 14-3 rout, the Bee Jays returned to action against a former Jayhawk League foe and NBC tournament participant Wednesday, but the results were close to the same with a 12-3 win over Haysville.

The Aviators left the Jayhawk League two years ago, and the Bee Jays joined the Kansas Collegiate League. 

Both Liberal and Haysville played in Championship Week of the NBC World Series last year, and Haysville advanced to the final 12 before finishing tied for ninth.

While many Kansas teams did not form teams this summer, Liberal and Haysville did, and the Bee Jays added the Aviators to the schedule to rekindle the friendly rivalry between the two teams.

Liberal jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning after lead-off batter Caeden Trenkle continued to find a way on base, this time with a walk, and after advancing to second on a passed ball and to third on a groundout by Jake Malone, Trenkle scored on an RBI single from Cayde Ward.

Ward stole second and scored on an RBI single by Wilson Erhardt.

Liberal added another tun in the fifth inning when Malone drove a double to left that scored Trenkle, and the Bee Jays had a 3-0 lead.

The Bee Jays put the game out of reach in the sixth and seventh innings.

Doubles from Bryce Donovan and Kyle Brewer, along with singles from Aidan Shepardson, Trenkle and Malone pushed four more runs across the plate in the sixth for a 7-0 Liberal lead.

Hayden Arnold pitched five shutout innings for the Bee Jays and only allowed one hit while striking out seven before being relieved by Dylan Johnson.

The Aviators finally broke through against Johnson in the seventh with a home run and two singles that allowed two runs to score, and Haysville narrowed the gap to 7-2.

But the Bee Jays responded with five more runs in the bottom of the seventh with doubles from Brewer and Nate White, singles from Brewer and Shepardson and a three-RBI home run from Trenkle with two outs to expand Liberal’s lead to 12-2.

Haysville added a run against reliever Rafferty Brown in the eighth inning with two hits, but Payton Strambler came on in the ninth with his hard-throwing style to strike out the final three Haysville batters and secure the 12-3 win.

Trenkle continued his strong start to the season with a three-for-four performance at the plate and three RBIs.

Brewer had three hits on five at-bats and two RBIs.

Shepardson, Ehrhardt and Malone each had two-hit nights.

Haysville fell to 0-3 with the loss while the Bee Jays improved to 5-1.

The Bee Jays and Aviators will face off again tonight and Saturday to complete the three-game series.

EARL WATT • Leader & Times

 

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