Lawrence High baseball sees stronger, more competitive play to end regular season turn into blowout loss against Mill Valley in regional semifinals

Mac Moore/Lawrence Sports, File Photo

Lawrence High’s Jaxon Becker bumps fists with teammate Hudson Hardesty during a baseball game early in the season.

The Lawrence High baseball team had hoped that the Lions’ more competitive outings over the final month of the regular season would allow them a puncher’s chance as they entered postseason competition this week.

Despite holding the 15th seed in the 6A East bracket, Lawrence High had just faced the same opponent awaiting the Lions in the regional opener, No. 2 seed Mill Valley, in a competitive game only two weeks ago.

Lawrence never led in that one, but the Lions had overcome a one-run deficit twice to tie the game at 3-all midway through the fifth inning. Of course, Mill Valley quickly scored two runs in the bottom half of that inning on the way to a 5-3 victory.

In Tuesday’s rematch on the same field at Mill Valley High School in Shawnee, the Jaguars showed that the gap between Lawrence High and themselves was much bigger than that previous two-run differential.

After taking a quick one-run lead in the bottom half of the first inning, Mill Valley took charge of this regional semifinals matchup by scoring five runs in the second and three runs in third on the way to a 12-2 run-rule victory over the Lions.

Mill Valley quickly put two runners on base early in the second inning, including Josh Garcia making his way to third base after a fielding error by the Lions allowed Micah Amman to reach first base off a bunt. Even after Amman stole second on a 1-1 count, Lawrence High junior Hudson Hardesty stayed calm on the mound. Hardesty struck out the next batter and led Blake Jay into a groundout bunt to first base.

But with two outs on the board, Hardesty got called on a balk that allowed Garcia to score. Ammann advanced to third before Beau Peterson sent him in for a score thanks to a line-drive double to center field.

Mill Valley’s Easton Engelhart connected with the first pitch he saw to deliver a two-run home run on a line drive over the center field fence, followed by Drew Yockey popping the next pitch over the left field fence for another score.

While facing a 3-1 count, Jackson Lucht hit a line drive to left field for a double that put the Jaguars right back into scoring position. Hardesty walked Kamden Dick, only for Lucht to make his way to third base and for Dick to steal second while the Lions hurler worked over the next batter and put him into a 1-2 count. Hardesty forced Garcia into a line-drive to center field, which Jaxon Becker hauled in to get the Lions out of the inning.

Mill Valley once again put up multiple runs after already having two early outs in the bottom of the third. Easton Englehart suffered the second of those outs on a sacrifice fly to center field, sending Dylan Mothersbaugh across the plate and setting Jay up at third base. While Yockey was up at the plate, Jay took home and Peterson stole two bases to himself in scoring position as well. Yockey rewarded Peterson by hitting a hard ground ball into center field to send the latter home for another score.

Lawrence High’s Jonas Hohman took over for Hardesty on the mound, where he walked Lucht before forcing Dick into a ground out to Gavin Taylor at shortstop to close the inning.

Lawrence finally got on the board in the top of the fourth. After one quick out on a pop up, the Lions responded with a pair of singles from Brandt Edmonds and Taylor. Becker would ground out as the next at-bat, but Edmonds would take advantage over a wild pitch sent toward Turner Juelsgaard at the plate. While Edmonds scored, Taylor would advance to third before Juelsgaard struck out to close the half inning.

Both teams would trade scores over their next at-bats, including Logan Harris scoring in the top of the fifth thanks to fielding error by Mill Valley as the Jaguars tried to make a double play.

But then Mill Valley put the game away with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth, reaching the necessary 10-run advantage to invoke the run-rule for a Jaguars’ victory.

Lawrence High finished the year with a 7-19 record. The Lions saw a promising 4-2 start turn into a 1-13 stretch covering most of the month of April. The team provided a little optimism heading into the postseason. Lawrence High ended a 10-game losing streak with a 7-1 home win against Shawnee Mission East on May 5, kicking off a stretch of two wins in three games. The Lions lost their next game, but kept it close against Mill Valley in a 5-3 road loss. They rebounded with a 11-2 win over Blue Valley North at home two days later.

Even the team’s final two losses to close out the regular season, a 6-3 loss in the City Showdown against Free State and a 7-6 loss against Washburn Rural in the regular season finale, gave the Lions a little bit of hope in capturing some postseason magic.

But Mill Valley came prepared with Mothersbaugh work on the mound limiting the Lions to just two hits through the first three innings as the Jaguars’ offense built up a nine-run advantage.

Mothersbaugh finished with six strikeouts while allowing just five hits and one earned run over five innings. Meanwhile, the Jaguars delivered 12 hits and 12 runs against the quartet of Lions who covered pitching duties for one out short of five full innings.

After the Jaguars victory over the Lions, Mill Valley would follow up with a 16-8 win over Blue Valley West in the regional finals.

Lawrence High graduates 12 seniors: Becker, Edmonds, Harris, Hohman, Juelsgaard, Brady Wollesen, Devin Foster, Nate Kress, Gavin Puza, Jadin Harrell, Greg Paasch and Jonah Stutler.