By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Southeast of Saline baseball team continued to roll on Tuesday evening, sweeping yet another doubleheader, this time with Republic County to open league play at 2-0.
The Trojans picked up right where they left off, scoring ten unanswered runs through the first five in Belleville, but the Buffaloes came charging back with an eight-run fourth to pull within two.
SES would find an insurance run in the sixth as Hart Nurnberg came across on an RBI single from Luke Gebhardt, but Republic County wasn’t done, tying the game with three runs of their own in the bottom half.
With one away in the seventh, Jayton Mathis singled and promptly proceeded to swipe second and third, setting up a Clayton Meier RBI knock to return the lead to Southeast.
The Trojans stranded the bases loaded and the Buffaloes were able to get the tying run to third, but Evan Nickelson slammed the door shut with two strikeouts as SES hung on for dear life to a 12-11 victory.
Game two wouldn’t even be a contest as Southeast piled on six runs in the third and eight in the fifth to take a 15-0 mercy-rule win and make the early bus ride back to Gypsum.
Landen Allen and Drew Richardson combined for five innings of five-hit shutout ball, striking out four and walking just one.
Eight of the nine members of the Trojan lineup contributed either a hit or an RBI in game two, headlined by Luke Gebhardt, who drove in three runs on two hits from the leadoff spot.
The now 6-0 Trojans will stay on the road for a doubleheader at Abilene on Friday, looking for a pair of wins against the 4A Cowboys.