The postseason journey for the Seneca Royals baseball team continued last Tuesday, June 2 when they traveled to Belmont to face the no. 2 seed Braves. Belmont jumped out to an early 2-0 lead thanks to a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning.
The score would remain 2-0 until the top of the fourth inning when the Royals scored one run to cut the deficit in half. After holding the Braves scoreless in the bottom of the fourth inning, Seneca’s offense would erupt in the top of the fifth inning for five runs to make the score 6-1 in favor of the Royals.
The Royals would add one final run in the top of the seventh inning before stopping the Braves in the bottom of the seventh inning to earn a 7-2 victory and a date in the regional final the next night at conference rival De Soto.
Winning starting pitcher Sam Gallagher (two runs allowed (zero earned) on six hits and two walks with seven strikeouts in 6.0 innings pitched) and reliever Kaden Roberts (zero runs allowed on one hit and zero walks with one strikeout in 1.0) combined to shut down the Braves offense.
Offensively, the Royals got a solo home run from Gage Wall (2-for-3 with a walk, three runs scored and one RBI) in the fourth inning and a three-run home run from Hunter Hagensick (1-for-4 with one run scored and three RBIs) in the fifth inning as part of their seven-run attack.
Seneca hit the road again the following night when they traveled to Stoddard’s Village Park to take on the De Soto Pirates. After a scoreless first inning by both teams, the Pirates struck first with one run in the second inning to grab an early 1-0 lead. That lead would soon evaporate as the Royals scored two runs in the top of the third inning to lead the host Pirates by the score of 2 to 1.
De Soto would tie the game up 2-2 with a run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Neither team could score over the course of the final three innings so the game went to extra innings still tied 2-2. Seneca’s offense got a one-out double by Jackson Konichek before Hagensick tripled with two outs to score Konichek and give the Royals a 3-2 lead going into the bottom of the eighth inning.
The Pirates would not go away quietly as back-to-back singles put runners at first and second with only out. Roberts, who was the game’s starting pitcher for the Royals, buckled down on the mound and induced a ground ball from the Pirates’ Griffin Hanson that Royals third baseman Gage Wall was able to field, step on third base for the out and fire to first baseman Konichek in time for the game-ending double play as Seneca held on to defeat De Soto by the score of 3 to 2 in eight innings. The loss snapped a nine-game winning streak for the Pirates (20-4), with the last loss prior to the winning streak being a 5-2 loss at Seneca on May 7.
Roberts (two runs allowed on six hits and zero walks with five strikeouts in 8.0 innings pitched) earned the hard earned win on the mound, out-dueling fellow starting pitcher Finn Wrobel of De Soto as both pitchers each pitched complete games.
Hagensick (3-for-4 with a triple and two RBIs) and Konichek (2-for-4 with a double and one run scored) combined for five of the Royals seven hits in the win. The other two hits came from Jax Wall (1-for-4 with one run scored) and Preston Kuhnke (1-for-4).
The win over De Soto gave the Royals its first regional championship in baseball since 2005. Seneca advanced to its first state tournament in program history that season thanks to a 5-4 win over Bangor in the D3 regional championship (a walk-off three-run home run by Aaron Aspenson), a 3-1 win over Royall in the sectional semifinal at Dodgeville and a 4-3 win over Southwestern in the sectional final. Seneca fell 9-0 in the state semifinals to defending D3 state champ Burlington Catholic Central thanks to a perfect game by BCC pitcher Brad Lois. BCC would go on to repeat as state champions in the final season of three divisions as the WIAA added a fourth division in 2006. Current Royals head coach Brandon Shepard was the team’s starting catcher as a junior during that run in 2005.
Sixth seed Seneca (17-7) advanced to yesterday’s sectional tournament at River Ridge High School to take on number one seed Potosi/Cassville (17-7) in the second game of the day. The winner advanced to the sectional final game to face the winner of the first game of the day between third seed Eleva-Strum (15-7) and eighth seed Cochrane-Fountain City (9-11), coached by Prairie du Chien alum Kevin Aspenson.
