By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Southeast of Saline baseball team worked a doubleheader split with rival Sacred Heart falling in game one 11-10 but bouncing back with a 13-10 game two victory to advance to 8-2 on the season.
At the midway mark, SES and Sacred Heart sit in a 3-1 tie for second in the NCAA behind 2-0 Ellsworth who each will face later this year.
The Trojans got out to an early lead in game one but a mammoth seven-run third would put the Knights on top 8-1 halfway through the contest.
SES put together a slow and steady comeback effort, collecting two in the fourth, three in the fifth, two in the sixth, and two more in the seventh, but came up one run short in an eventual 11-10 loss thanks to three late Knights insurance runs.
Sacred Heart started game two with a bang driving in four runs in the first frame but this time the Trojan bats wasted no time responding, capitalizing on struggling pitching to score five of their own in the bottom half.
The Knights struck for three more in the third and fourth but Southeast was never without an answer tacking on five in the fourth and three more in the fifth before lightning brought the already official game to a sudden halt.
The Trojan comeback effort was anchored by big home runs from Landen Allen and Jaython Mathis, who combined to drive in 5 of the 13 SES runs.
Despite reaching the halfway point in the regular season, SES still has eight different batters hitting .300 or better, led by Evan Nickelson (.571) and Luke Gebhardt (.595) who have put up video game-like numbers in 40+ plate appearances.
SES will have their next three doubleheaders at home beginning with a two-game non-league set against Chapman on Thursday.