The Wayne High baseball team claimed runner-up honors at the Seward Invitational on Monday, beating Branched Oak 9-8 before losing to the host Bluejays in the finale, 9-1.
In the win over Branched Oak, Wayne survived a late rally to come away with the win as Jacob Kneifl came on in relief with a strikeout to nail down the win.
Wayne took a 3-0 lead in the first when Kneifl and Trevor DeBoer walked, setting up a one-out homer by Reid Korth, who launched a bomb the other way to right field to give the Blue Devils the early lead.
Wayne added another run in the second when Kneifl reached on an error, scoring Victor Kniesche. The two teams traded runs in the third, with Wayne scoring on an RBI single by Gunnar Jorgensen, scoring Blake Bartos.
Branched Oak got within two with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth, but Wayne matched that in the bottom of the inning with RBI singles by Korth and Bartos. Wayne got what proved to be a needed insurance run in the second when Hagan Miller singled up the middle, scoring Josh Lutt to make it 9-5.
Trevor DeBoer pitched six solid innings to get the win. Korth came on in relief to start the inning, but Kneifl finished the job to pick up the save.
Miller and Korth paced an 11-hit attack with three hits apiece. Korth had five RBI’s in the game. DeBoer allowed only two earned runs while striking out two in six innings.
Wayne couldn’t get anything going until late in the championship game, as Seward scored in each of the first four innings to take control of the contest.
Wayne’s lone run came in the top of the seventh inning. Korth led off the inning with a single, moved to third on a Bartos double and scored on Brock Hopkins’ groundout.
Wayne was limited to four hits in the games, highlighted by the Bartos double. Korth, Jorgensen and Lutt also had hits. Kneifl went five innings and took the loss, with Drew Buck throwing an inning of relief.
Wayne is 8-5 on the season. They play at Guardian Angels CC on Tuesday and will host Yutan on Saturday before closing out the regular season Monday at Arlington.
