Manhattan, KS

In the toss up game of the 3A State Baseball Tournament, the fifth seeded Sabetha Bluejays fell short to the fourth seed Wichita Collegiate Spartans 3-1. 

The bats for the Jays just could never get going in this one, as Hayden Malaise and Brett Black combined for allowing just one hit and one run to Sabetha. Through the first four innings, Sabetha never had a base-runner and went three up, three down in each inning. The game was scoreless headed to the bottom of the fourth before Collegiate got on the board on a solo home-run from Black to get the scoring started. A two-out double by Malaise kept the inning going, and he would score on an RBI single from next man up Jacob Chappell. 

Sabetha would respond in the top of the fifth, as Mitchell Kramer led the inning off with a walk. He would then steal second base and watch the next two Bluejays go down on strikes. That's when a big two-out hit came from Jacob Grimm to give Sabetha some life with his RBI single. Aiden Lang would follow that up with a two-out walk before Black would retire the side by striking out Garber to end the threat. 

Collegiate would add one more run in the bottom of the sixth inning, after a pair of errors to extend to a 3-1 lead. Black would shut the door on the Bluejays season in the top of the seventh, getting Sabetha three up, three down.

Collegiate will take on top seed Humboldt in the semi-final round on Friday and improve to 20-4 on the season, while Sabetha's season comes to an end with yet another state tournament appearance and a record of 19-5. 

Christian McAfee pitched well for the 'Jays, dealing 5 innings, allowing just 4 hits, 2 runs and striking out 4 as well. Chase Frey pitched in with 1 inning on the bump, allowing 1 run, no hits and two strikeouts. 

Sabetha will graduate 6 seniors in Josh Herrmann, Nohl Niehues, Noah Kroll, Nathan Voos, Matthew Garber and Davis Rokey. However they will return a heafty amount of experience in Mitchell Kramer, Marcus Bauman, Aiden Lang, Christian McAfee, Chase Frey and Jacob Grimm just to name a few. 

The fourth season for Coach Curtis Hamilton looks bright, and will have plenty of hope heading into the 2024 campaign.