The 2026 baseball postseason kicked off for the third seed Seneca Royals last Thursday, May 28 when they hosted conference foe and 11th seed Kickapoo Panthers in the D4 regional quarterfinal round. Earlier in the week, Seneca’s regular season finale at Barneveld scheduled for May 26 was cancelled.

The Royals got on the scoreboard first when they broke a scoreless tie with a run in the bottom of the second inning before extending their lead to 5-0 with four runs in the third inning. The Panthers scored twice in the top of the fourth inning to make it a 5-2 game before the hosts answered in the bottom of the fourth inning with two more runs of their own. Kickapoo would make one more run at the Royals with three runs in the top of the fifth inning to make the score 7-5 before Seneca answered one final time with three more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning as the Royals would hold on for the 10 to 5 win and advance to the regional semifinal round.

Kaden Roberts got the complete game win for the Royals, allowing five runs (two earned) on five hits and zero walks with 15 strikeouts in 7.0 innings pitched. He was supported by the Royals offense that scored 10 runs on 10 hits and seven walks in the win. Four different Seneca batters had multiple hits in the win. Those four batters were Gage Wall (2-for-5 with a triple and one run scored), Hunter Hagensick (2-for-3 with one walk, three runs scored and two RBIs), Preston Kuhnke (2-for-4 with four RBIs) and Basil Hall (2-for-4 with a double, one run scored and one RBI). Also getting into the hit column in the win for Seneca was Sam Gallagher (1-for-3 with one walk and one RBI) and Sawyer Swiggum (1-for-3 with a triple, one walk, one run scored and one RBI).

The Royals (15-7) traveled to Belmont this past Tuesday, June 2 to take on the third seeded Braves in a D4 regional semifinal contest. The winner of that game advanced to today’s regional final game against the winner of the De Soto/Wauzeka-Steuben regional semifinal.