By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Southeast of Saline Trojan baseball season met a heartbreaking end on Thursday at the hands of the Hesston Swathers in the regional final.
With a 3-2 victory over SES, Hesston punched their ticket to state while the Trojans wrapped up their 2021 campaign at 20-2.
This game was one of the closest that Southeast had played in all season, with phenomenal pitching keeping both sides in the game.
Hesston got on the board first, collecting a run in the second and two more in the fourth to head into the fifth up 3-0.
Those runs would be the only three allowed by Eli Harris, who pitched all seven innings and struck out seven in his final start for the purple and white.
SES battled back in the home half of the fifth thanks to a big 2 RBI hit from Evan Nickelson, but it wouldn’t be enough as two scoreless innings brought the game to it’s conclusion at 3-2.
The Swathers will advance to the state tournament in Manhattan next week, joining Frontenac, Garnett-Anderson County, Minneapolis, Bishop Ward, Rock Creek and two more winners of games yet to be played.
For SES, this season will still go down as one to remember, as the team wrapped up their year with a fourth consecutive league title and a 19-1 record in regular season play.
The Trojans will lose Eli Harris, Jaxson Gebhardt and Bryant Banks to graduation, but will return a very promising amount of talent for the 2022 season.
For more on SES athletics, stay tuned to the Salina Post.