By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
The Southeast of Saline baseball team cruised to a doubleheader sweep of Republic County on Tuesday, with wins of 17-4 and 18-1, to open league play in style.
Game One: SE of Saline 17, Republic County 4
The Buffaloes actually managed to start this game ahead after scratching across two runs in the top of the first but quickly lost that lead when the Trojans struck for eight in the home half of the frame.
Things quieted down from there, but another run in the second, six more in the third and two in the fourth would bring this contest to an early end.
Six different members of the Trojan order would record at least one hit in this game, led by a 3-4 day at the plate by Evan Watkins, who drove in three of Southeast’s 17 runs.
On the bump, Cole Gilpin and Ian Nickelson combined to toss five innings, allowing just two earned runs on a pair of hits and recording nine strikeouts.
Game Two: SE of Saline 18, Republic County 1
The nightcap of this doubleheader produced a similar game, with Republic County seeing an early 1-0 lead become a 12-1 deficit by the end of the first inning.
Six more runs from the Trojans in the home half of the second would prove far too much to overcome as SES completed game two and secured the sweep in just three innings.
Once again, the whole SES lineup got in on the fun, with seven different players recording a hit and eight different Trojans driving in one or more runs.
Tiernen Ptacek was fantastic on the hill, striking out five and allowing just one run in his start before turning things over to the Trojan bullpen to close it out.
With these results, SES moves to 4-2 overall and 2-0 in league play, while the Buffaloes drop to 1-7 and 0-2, respectively.
Southeast will be back in action on Friday when they return to Gypsum to host the Abilene Cowboys.