Baldwin baseball keeps score close early in regional semifinals, allows Wamego to pull away late with 5-run inning

Mac Moore/Lawrence Sports, File Photo

Baldwin’s Tucker Bradley walks back to the dugout during a baseball game against Eudora on April 21 at Eudora High School.

A four-game losing streak early in the year put the Baldwin baseball team on a long and winding path this season that saw the Bulldogs never give up on its way to reaching double-digit victories for the second straight season. Baldwin had not had another 10-win season since the team won 11 games back in 2015.

The Bulldogs had hoped to match last year’s 12 wins, but would need to pick up a win at regionals.

Instead, Baldwin ended up coming out on the losing end of a 6-0 contest against Wamego in the regional semifinals on May 11 at Wamego Recreation Sports Complex.

Baldwin started the year 1-4, then went to 2-6 before a three-game win streak put the Bulldogs into a seesaw battle with staying near for .500 heading into the final week of April.

But the team ran into a rough stretch of five straight losses, which included a 52-16 scoring margin and four games where the opponent scored at least 11 runs.

Baldwin seemed to bounce back with a 7-6 win in extra innings over Santa Fe Trail back on May 7. In that game, Cedric Sansome bunted into a fielder’s choice that led to Johnny Torrez scoring on an error at third base. The Bulldogs rode the momentum of that win into a 14-1 victory over Maranatha Christian Academy the next night. Playing in its third game in three days, Baldwin lost 2-0 against Frontier League rival Ottawa.

Baldwin still took a lot of optimism into the postseason after closing out the regular season with a 5-4 road win over Bonner Springs.

Wamego took an early lead with a score in the bottom of the first, but it would not be until a five-run showing in the fifth that the game became out of reach for the Bulldogs.

The Red Raiders opened the bottom of that fifth inning by hitting three straight singles. Macoy Moody delivered the third of those, sending a line drive to right field that allowed both Nate Gallagher and Tayton Griffin to score.

After another single from Brodie Cottam, Baldwin pitcher Brayden Hirshmann finally forced as he led Isaac Braun into a pop fly hauled in by Tyce Engemann in center field. Wamego responded by taking advantage of a passed ball to get Moody on third and Cottam on second while Hirschmann worked Brandon Poell into a 1-2 count.

With the pressure on, Poell connected with the next pitch to deliver a fly-ball double to left field, sending Moody and Cottam across home plate.

After an error allowed AJ Kunz to reach base and advance Poell to third base, Baldwin’s Johnny Torrez took over for Hirschmann on the mound. But Torrez quickly got called for a balk that allowed Poell to score. Cooper Niedfeldt hit a sacrifice grounder to Torrez, which allowed Kunz to reach third as the Bulldogs’ opted for the force out at first. Torrez got Baldwin out of the inning with a strikeout.

Trailing 6-0 heading into the bottom of the top of the sixth, Baldwin would need a lot of offense, and fast, to keep the team’s season alive. Instead, the Bulldogs suffered its final six outs during their last two innings at the plate on a series of ground outs and pop flys while only two batters reached base on a walk and being hit by a pitch.

Baldwin will graduate five seniors: Hirschmann, Sansome, Tucker Bradley, Seth Smasal and Cooper Cohorst.