By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
With wins of 4-3 and 12-2 over Ellsworth on Tuesday, the Southeast of Saline baseball team is right back on top, defending their title as NCAA league champions for a sixth straight season.
In addition to locking up at least a share of this year’s league crown, these wins move the Trojans to 13-5 overall and allow them to finish at 9-1 in league play, extending their win streak to six in the process.
With a little under a week of baseball left to be played, Sacred Heart, who Southeast split with earlier this season, is the only team capable of evening out with the Trojans, but will need to sweep 5-3 Beloit in order to deny SES the outright title.
As for the Trojans, they took care of business in fine fashion, winning a nailbiter in the opener before breezing by the Bearcats to secure the sweep in the nightcap.
The hero of game one’s pitchers duel was sophomore sensation Cole Gilpin, who pitched yet another gem, tossing a complete game in which he allowed just six hits and two walks, fanning six more in a 4-3 victory.
The Trojans gave Gilpin just enough run support in a game that saw timely RBI hits from Trever Keller, Grady Gebhardt, and Jase VanAmburg.
All of those hits came late, as Ellsworth held a 1-0 lead until the bottom of the sixth, but with their backs to the wall, the Trojans struck back with three of their own to take their first lead of the game.
The Bearcats mustered up two runs in response to even the score going into the home half of the seventh, but the SES had other ideas, wasting no time walking it off to take game one in dramatic fashion.
In game two, Southeast was called upon to come back again as Ellsworth took an early 2-0 lead in the top of the second, but a two-run home half allowed the Trojans to tie things up before blowing it open with a six-run third and ending it early with a four-run sixth.
This time around, it was Luke Gebhardt who joined VanAmburg atop the stat sheet, with that duo combining for two big hits that brought seven runs in to score.
On the bump, the Trojans got a great combined effort from Jake Gebhardt, Killian Vaughan, and Trever Keller, who tossed six total innings of four-hit ball, striking out five in the process.
Southeast will be back in action one final time this Thursday when they host the Russell Broncos for their regular season finale.
Photo credit: Kyler Boley