The Seneca Royals baseball team entered this past week looking to stay in contention for the Ridge & Valley Conference Championship trailing first place Ithaca by one game with two to go for the Royals and three for the Bulldogs.

The second place Royals began the week last Monday, May 18 at fourth place North Crawford needing a win (plus a loss by Ithaca against either Weston or Wauzeka-Steuben) to move into a tie for first in the league. After a scoreless first inning and a half, the Trojans pushed a run across in the bottom of the second inning to take a 1-0 lead before adding six more runs in the bottom of the third inning to make the score 7-0.

North Crawford would go on to add another run in the bottom of the fifth inning to increase the score to 8-0 before the Royals finally got on the scoreboard with two runs in the top of the sixth inning. The hosts scored one more run in the bottom of the sixth before the Royals answered in the top of the seventh inning with one run but it was not enough as the Trojans handed the Royals a 9-3 defeat.

Gage Wall (four runs allowed (three earned) on five hits and no walks with one strikeout in 2.0 innings pitched) took the loss. He was relieved by Sam Gallagher (four runs allowed (two earned) on four hits and two walks and two strikeouts in 2.2 innings pitched), Jax Wall (zero runs allowed on zero hits and one walk with one strikeout in 0.1 innings pitched) and Preston Kuhnke (one run allowed on zero hits and three walks in 1.0 inning pitched).

The Royals offense was held to six hits in the loss, with Kuhnke (2-for-3 with a walk) and Kaden Roberts (2-for-4 with a double and one run scored) combining to have four of them. Hunter Hagensick (1-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored) and Sawyer Swiggum (1-for-3) had the Royals other two hits in the loss.

Seneca returned to the home diamond the next day when they welcomed La Farge to town. The Royals jumped on the Wildcats early and often en route to a 15-0 win in five innings. Seneca’s offense scored twice in the first, three times in the second, six in the third and four in the fourth inning while out hitting La Farge 10 to zero.

Kuhnke got the complete game, no-hit shutout victory for the Royals, allowing zero runs on zero hits and two walks with 12 strikeouts in 5.0 innings pitched.

The Seneca offense was led by Jax Wall (4-for-4 with two runs scored and three RBIs) and Kuhnke (2-for-4 with three RBIs). The Royals also got a double from Basil Hall and singles from G. Wall, Swiggum and Gallagher.

The Royals traveled to Stoddard last Thursday, May 21 to take on De Soto in the conference finale. The Pirates scored first with two runs in the first and one in the second to take a 3-0 lead on Seneca. The Royals offense got on the scoreboard with a run in the top of the third and one in the top of the fifth inning to narrow the score to 3-2. De Soto would go on to add two insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to get their back to three runs at 5 to 2 which would be the final score.

Gallagher (five runs allowed (one earned) on three hits and two walks with seven strikeouts in 5.0 innings pitched) took the loss on the mound for Seneca, with Roberts (zero runs allowed on no hits and no walks with one strikeout in 1.0 inning pitched) finishing the game in relief of Gallagher.

Seneca’s offense was held to five hits in the game, singles by G. Wall, J. Wall, Kuhnke, Roberts and Gallagher.

The Royals ended the week by welcoming Westby to town last Friday for the regular season finale. The Royals pounced on the Norsemen early with a run in each the first and second innings to take a 2-0 lead before the visitors cut the lead in half with a run in the top of the third inning. Seneca responded with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third inning and one more run in the fourth to extend their lead to 5 to 1. Westby added two more runs in the fifth and one more in the seventh inning but were unable to complete the rally as the Royals held on for the 5-4 victory.

Roberts got the win for Seneca, allowing four runs (two earned) on nine hits and zero walks with five strikeouts in 7.0 innings pitched.

Hagensick (2-for-2 with a double, one walk, one run scored and two RBIs) and Hall (2-for-3 with one run scored and one RBI) were the Royals’ leading hitters in the win, with four of the team's five hits. Gallagher had the other hit for Seneca.

Seneca finished the regular season with a 14-7 overall record and 9-2 with the win. They began the postseason on Tuesday, May 28 when they hosted Kickapoo in a D4 regional quarterfinal game.