Railers rally to stop Great Bend

GREAT BEND — Not many pitchers spot a 4-0 lead to Great Bend’s baseball team and live to tell the tale.

Newton sophomore Nathan Briar gave up two runs in the first inning and two more in the second, but settled down after that to pitch five innings of shutout ball.

Meanwhile, the Railer offense finally kicked into gear, scoring seven unanswered runs in a 7-4 win over the top-seeded Panthers Tuesday in the Class 5A regional finals in Great Bend.

The Railers opened play with a 4-1 semifinal win over Salina Central.

Newton, 11-11, advances to the state tournament May 23 and 24 at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in Wichita.

Briar allowed 10 hits, one walk and three strikeouts for the complete-game win.

“I was just hitting my spots, placing the ball,” Briar said. “I was giving them a little of everything out there. It was a great comeback. All of my pitches were going pretty good. The defense played great behind me. We started hitting the ball.”

“Great Bend is a solid club,” Newton coach Mark George said. “They came in here the top seed, 17-3. I’m not sure what their rank in the state is, but they executed well those first two innings. They played well defensively. I don’t know what happened to them, but Nathan Briar started coming on and shutting them down. The perseverance we showed was outstanding. Nate’s play was stellar. For the third inning on, he pitched his best.”

Newton scored three runs in the third inning and two more in the fourth and fifth innings.

With one out in the bottom of the seventh, Great Bend got a bloop single to right. After a strikeout, the Panthers blooped another single to right, putting runners on the corners. With the tying run at the plate, a ground ball to shortstop ended the game.

“They didn’t really drive the ball hard in the seventh,” George said. “Nathan was throwing good pitches. They got good aluminum on them and happened to push them. From the third inning on, we did a great job of executing our offensive scheme. We got great leadership from seniors like Jesse Jerde, Sean Kelly, Alex Koerner, all coming up with big hits.”

Jordy Bonczyk went two for three at the plate while Sean Kelly went two for three. Trent Mauler and Derek Jonas each went two for four hitting for Great Bend.

Panther starter Logan Burns took the loss. Jonas closed the game.in the first inning against Salina Central. The Mustangs scored a run in the bottom of the second, but the Railers capped the scoring with a run in the fourth.

Newton pitcher Alex Koerner got the win, allowing a run on two hits. Kelly came on in the seventh for the save. Jesse Jerde had two of Newton’s three hits.Wyatt Hall took the loss for Central, which ended the season 10-11.

“We played solid defense,” George said. “We got excellent pitching from Alex. We played a baseball game. We did what we needed to do to win, and that was exciting.”

The wins at regional put the Railers at .500 for the first time this season.

“It’s good to get to .500,” George said. “The records don’t mean that much to me. It’s how you end up. Right now, this is perfect icing on the cake. We could be 5-15 here, but records don’t matter at this time of the season. Everybody started out 0-0. Even though we were under .500, I felt like we were a dangerous team. We were a better team than people were giving us credit for.”

Newton will likely be one of the lower seeds at state.

“Tomorrow, we’ll take a day off,” George said. “These guys have worked so hard in practice this year. When we come back, we’re going to try some different things as far as offensive and defensive drills the coaches have wanted to try. We’re going to try and stay positive. Nobody expected us to be there. It’s all about enjoying the moment and having fun. Not a whole lot of ballplayers can say they’ve played at state.”

Semifinals

Newton 4, Salina Central 1

Newton 300 100 0 —4 3 2

S.Central 010 000 0 —1 2 1

Koerner (W), Kelly (S) 7 and Jerde; Hill (L) and Bryan.

Championship game

Newton 7, Great Bend 4

Newton 003 220 0 —7 11 3

Grt.Bnd 220 000 0 —4 10 2

Briar (W) and Jerde; Burns (L), Jonas 4 and Pangburn.

In the semifinals, Newton used a couple of hits, a couple of walks and an error to take a 3-0 lead