It had been awhile since the Seward Legion juniors had been to the Class B state tournament, let alone when they won state.
The ZKE Storage juniors broke the tournament drought and came close to a state championship July 19, falling to Wahoo 6-5 in the final.
Wahoo was the only team to beat Seward in the tournament. After Seward beat Alliance and Waverly in its first two games, ZKE faced Wahoo July 17 and struggled to get its offense going, losing 12-3.
Seward had five hits in the game, although two were for extra bases – a solo home run by Connor Sveeggen to put Seward on the board in the second inning and a double by Brendon Ruth that drove in two runs in the third.
Karson Dyer, Kyle Riley and Riley Calway each pitched at least one inning in the five-inning contest and combined for four strikeouts.
Seward came back against Gering July 18 in an elimination game and pounded 11 hits in a 6-3 win. Ruth was 3-4 and Bostyn Happ was 2-4, with each hitting a double. Sveeggen also doubled. Ruth and Cale Gardiner drove in two runs apiece.
Ruth got the win on the mound, pitching 6.1 innings and striking out five. Brycen Burt pitched 2/3 of an inning in relief and struck out one to get the save.
That put Seward in the championship series against Wahoo, which had not lost in the tournament. Seward had to win two for the championship and fell just short in the first.
Trailing 6-5 going into the bottom of the seventh, Happ drew a walk to lead off the inning. He took second on a wild pitch and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt.
He was stranded at third, however, when Wahoo induced a ground ball to shortstop to end the game.
Happ was 2-2 with a double and three RBIs in the game.
Sveeggen took the loss on the mound, allowing all six Wahoo runs but striking out five in 5.2 innings.
Seward finished the season at the Class B juniors runner-up with a record of 27-7.
