Allen Community College’s baseball team lost 5-4 in Wednesday’s nine-inning game against host Ottawa University’s junior varsity.
The Red Devils are 16-22 overall. They take a 10-14 Jayhawk Eastern Division record into this weekend’s four-game conference series against Labette Community College. The teams play a doubleheader today and one on Sunday in Parsons, both starting at 2 o’clock.
In the game with Ottawa’s JV, the Red Devils used five pitchers. Tanner Lee started and threw three innings, followed by Joe Saia and Bill Wigington, who each pitched two innings. Lucas Westervelt and Zak Mickens pitched in the eighth.
Allen scored first with two runs in the third inning. With one out, Tim Lewis and Garrett Rasch had back-to-back triples. Rasch scored on a groundout by Travis Stafford.
Ottawa tied the game at 2-2 with two runs in the fifth. Allen regained the lead, 3-2, when Kyle Fultz reached on a one-out error by Ottawa and scored on a double by Garrett Hess.
The Red Devils produced a run in the seventh to go up by two runs. Lewis was hit by a pitch and stole second base. Rasch had a bunt single to move Lewis to third. Stafford’s groundout drove in the run.
Unfortunately, the Red Devils couldn’t get out of the bottom of the eighth. Ottawa used four hits to score three runs to take a 5-4 lead. Allen went in order in the top of the ninth to end the game.
Ottawa had 10 hits in the game and benefited from five walks issued by Allen pitchers and two hit batters.
Lewis had a double and a triple for the Red Devils and Rasch had a single and triple. Hess doubled and singled and Fultz doubled.
Last weekend, Allen beat Independence 10-1 on Saturday, powered by a seven-run fourth. Jared Sterling got the win, pitching six innings and giving up one run on four hits and two walks. Wigington struck out two of the four batters he faced and gave up a hit in the seventh inning.
Rasch was 3-for-3 with a triple and two singles. Caleb Wilburn doubled and hit two singles. Nathan Russell had two singles. Stafford, Hess and Eric Seymour each had a base hit.
Independence rallied to beat Allen 6-5 in the second game Saturday. Joe Mapes was Allen’s starting pitcher, went 5 2/3 innings and was charged with five runs on 12 hits and one walk. He struck out four. Jake Johnson took the loss in relief, allowing one run on two hits and two walks.
Allen led 4-3 after four innings, then Independence went up 5-4 with two runs in the sixth. The Red Devils produced the tying run in the top of the seventh. The Pirates used two hits to manufacture the winning run in their half of the inning.
Wilburn hit a solo home run for Allen to lead off the second inning, and had a double. Russell and Stafford each had two singles. Lewis and Rasch had a double apiece. Fultz, Seymour and Sky Bushyhead each had a single.
