By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Southeast of Saline Trojan baseball team secured a league title with a clean sweep over the Ellsworth Bearcats on Tuesday.
With wins of 2-1 and 12-2, the Trojans extend their record to 17-1, their winning streak to 10, and for a fourth consecutive season take home the NCAA crown.
Ellsworth came to Gypsum at 10-6 looking to test the Trojans at home, and came through on that promise early on.
Game one was a true pitchers duel, with no score through the first seven innings. Eli Harris and Dayton Davis put on a clinic, allowing no runs on five hits and striking out 18 batters to that point in the game.
Ellsworth was able to break the deadlock on an RBI single from Braden Schulte in the eighth, but the Trojans found a run of their own to tie it courtesy of a Bryant Banks RBI.
Nine innings wouldn’t be enough to settle this game, and after Ellsworth came up empty in their half of the tenth, SES went to work.
Evan Nickelson worked a walk to lead off the inning and came around to third, setting up a 2-1 walk-off win on a sacrifice-fly by junior Jayton Mathis.
That walk-off lit a fire under Southeast, who were not interested in playing another close game.
The Trojans rattled off twelve runs in game two and allowed just two of their own to take a 12-2 win by mercy rule.
The top of the order did most of the heavy lifting in the big win, with nine of the teams ten RBIs coming from the top five spots in the order.
Evan Nickelson and Drew Richardson looked dominant on the bump for SES, allowing just two runs on four hits and striking out three in five innings.
The Trojans will wrap up their regular season on Friday with one last home doubleheader against the Russell Broncos.
Stay tuned to the Salina Post for continuing coverage of the SES Trojan baseball team.