Hutchinson Monarchs punch ticket to NBC World Series baseball semifinals in Wichita
The Hutchinson Monarchs rolled into the semifinals of the National Baseball Congress World Series in dominant fashion on Thursday, finishing with 17 hits in an 11-1, run-rule victory over Lonestar Baseball Club.
Hutchinson was the lone Kansas team to survive Thursday’s quarterfinals, as the Kansas Cannons, the Jayhawk Collegiate League champions, and Great Bend Bat Cats both were eliminated.
The Monarchs, which are a perfect 4-0 at Eck Stadium this tournament, will face Five Tool Kraken, a club from Texas, in Friday’s showcase game at 6 p.m. A tradition-rich clash between the Santa Barbara Foresters and Seattle Studs, winners of 11 of the last 12 World Series crowns, is slated in the other semifinal.
A pitching gem from Olathe native Brady Beverman, a sophomore at Hutchinson Community College, helped the Monarchs advance with ease on Thursday. The right-hander limited Lonestar to a single run on four hits, no walks and seven strikeouts in a seven-inning start.
Hutchinson took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning when mistakes by Lonestar allowed Andale native Drew Bugner (Pratt Community College) to reach base, then be in position to score on a RBI single by Hutchinson Community College’s Will Edmunson. The Monarchs doubled their lead the next inning when Samuel Wiese (Hesston College), Jarrett Flaggert (Cowley Community College) and Blake Bradford (Hutchinson Community College) strung together 2-out hits.
Flaggert delivered a 2-RBI single in the sixth, then Wiese notched another RBI single in the seventh to open up a 5-1 lead. The floodgates opened in the top of the eighth inning, as Edmunson drilled a 2-RBI double to center field and Wiese cranked a 3-run home run over the right-field wall to stake the Monarchs to a 10-run lead.
Wiese finished 4-for-5 at the plate with three RBIs and three runs scored, while Flaggert, a former Shocker, and Bradford each finished with three hits and Edmonson drove in three runs.
In the following game, the Kansas Cannons were poised to advance when Maize South graduate Owen Clyne smacked a 2-out, 2-RBI double to center field to put the Cannons in front, 2-1, in the top of the sixth inning. But a pair of errors made by the Cannons on defense to begin the bottom of the seventh inning led to their demise.
Five Tool Kraken capitalized on the two free runners with three straight run-scoring hits, hanging a crooked number on the scoreboard and opening up a 6-2 lead. The Cannons had the bases loaded with two outs in the eighth inning, but only managed to produce one run and lost the game 6-3.
The Great Bend Bat Cats, the regular-season Jayhawk Collegiate League champions, fell behind early to the Seattle Studs and never recovered in a 6-1 loss to the NBC powerhouse program. Great Bend was led by catcher Grant Nottlemann (Barton Community College) with a 3-for-3 performance at the plate.
In the most impressive performance of the day, the three-time defending champions of the tournament, Santa Barbara Foresters, used two pitchers to combine for a no-hitter and strike out 18 batters in a 3-0 victory over the Denver Cougars.
Arkansas right-hander Ben Bybee made the start, striking out 10 batters in six innings, while former Shocker Robert Cranz, who transferred to Oklahoma State, finished off the no-hitter with three scoreless innings and striking out eight. If not for a walk in the fifth inning, the Foresters would have registered a combined perfect game.
