In the three-year history of the K7 League, Midland has won all the Midland-Eudora games played at Midland, while Eudora has won all the games at Eudora. The June 24 double header, played in 95 degree heat, was no exception to the rule as Eudora won 4-3 and 12-9 over the Monarchs. Here's how the first gamel went down...

 

Chris Seagraves started game one, fresh off his complete game victory last week. Both pitchers threw well in the first two innings, with Chris giving up a leadoff double in the first and Midland picking up two singles in the second by Chris and Dylan Smith. None of the runners scored, as nothing else was hit out of the infield.

 

Midland drew first blood in the third, thanks to consecutive fielding errors on the first two hitters plus a passed ball. With Mac Stephenson and Cody Guthrie on 2nd and 3rd, Jacob Reinhart punched a single to right to score one. On the next pitch, Tanner Holland brought in a second run with a 6-4 fielder's choice, and the Monarchs led 2-0. Eudora stirred the pot in the bottom half of the frame with two singles and a walk, but Kyle Ptasnik pulled in a fly ball to left for the final out, stranding all three runners.

 

The fourth inning turned out to be a painful experience for Midland on both sides of the field. Eudora's pitcher struck out the side to get things started, then their offense combined some patience, a touch of bat artistry, and a painful Monarchs error on a made-to-order double play ball, into a nasty recipe. Given a second life, Eudora punched in two unearned runs to tie the game 2-2.

 

Both teams went hitless and scoreless in the fifth, and the possibility of extra innings appeared on the Monarchs future. Mac Stephenson came in to pitch the sixth for Midland, and struck out the side (with a full-count walk sandwiched in the middle). 

 

In the seventh, Midland played small ball with two outs. Alex Connely worked the pitcher for a walk, stole second, and advanced to third on a wild pitch. And then to the Monarchs' delight, a throw on Joel Donn's grounder to third went wild at first, allowing Alex to head home with the go-ahead run. Mac's single sent Joel to third, but that's all the farther he went and Midland had a 3-2 lead and three outs to get.

 

Those three outs, however, never happened. The normally unflappable Mac walked the first two batters on 3-0 counts, then an infield grounder was mishandled at first to bring in the tying run. The next hitter waited for his pitch, and knocked a single into right for the winning run, and a 4-3 loss for Midland. Bummer, dude.

 

NOTES: The Monarchs only picked up four singles in the game... Of the seven runs in the game, only the last one was earned... Midland pitching gave up more walks (7) than hits (6)... Eudora batted 12 in the game, giving them three EH (extra hitters)... Neither team had a player with a multiple-hit game... The fourth and fifth innings for Eudora both ended with a runner on second and a 5-3 grounder from Clay Lambrecht to Tanner Holland...