By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
The Southeast of Saline baseball team split its two-game set with Smoky Valley on Thursday, dominating game one 15-0 before falling in a tight game two 8-5.
Game One: SE of Saline 15, Smoky Valley 0
The opener looked competitive until the top of the fifth, where the Trojan bats exploded, quickly turning a 6-0 lead into a 14-0 lead in the blink of an eye.
SES kept the slate clean and put the finishing touches on their victory with one final run in the sixth to close out a mercy-shortened win.
The whole Southeast lineup got in on the fun, with Sam Knopf, Ian Nickelson, Evan Watkins, Tiernan Ptacek, and Ben Heinrich all recording multi-RBI games.
In the circle Ptacek shut down the Viking lineup, striking out six and allowing just four hits without issuing a single walk in six innings of shutout work.
Game Two: SE of Saline 8, Smoky Valley 5
The Trojans took an early 3-0 lead in game two as well, but in the bottom of the secon,d Smoky Valley finally broke through with three runs of their own to tie the game.
Both teams would add two runs in the fourth but it would be a three-run sixth for Smoky Valley that stood as the difference as the Vikings held on to win 8-5.
With this split, Southeast now sits at 9-5 on the year, good for third in the Silver Lake regional, while Smoky Valley improves to 3-11.