Warriors fall to Sacred Heart

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN TOM STOPPEL
Marion-Florence/Peabody-Burns played its only baseball games of the week at Salina on Tuesday against undefeated Sacred Heart.

After a pair of hard-fought games, they Knights remained undefeated with 12-2 and 11-10 wins against the Warriors.

Clayton Garnica took the loss in the opener with relief help from Todd Woodruff.

Garnica went the first four innings, allowing only four hits but walking six and giving up 11 earned runs.

After the Warriors took a 1-0 lead in the second inning, Sacred Heart answered with six runs in the second and three more in the third to open a 9-1 lead.

The Warriors had six hits but committed seven errors. Aaron Burnett doubled and David DeForest tripled for Marion. Clinton Jeffery and Garnica were both credited with runs batted in.

In Game 2, the Warriors scored three runs in the first inning and six in the sixth to take a 10-4 lead into the bottom of the sixth inning.

“We had a big inning there,” coach Shaun Craft said. “We got six runs on them and things looked pretty good.”

But Sacred Heart rallied in the bottom of the sixth to score five runs and close the deficit to 10-9.

The game wasn’t decided until the bottom of the seventh. With two outs and nobody on base, the Knights got an infield hit that the Warriors promptly gift wrapped with a pair of errors as the Knights scored a pair of runs for the come-from-behind victory.

Clinton Jeffery, the starting pitcher for Marion, allowed two hits and one earned run in 21⁄3 innings.

Cody Weerts-who took the loss-relieved Jeffery in the third inning and gave up 12 hits and 10 earned runs in 41⁄3 innings.

The Warriors pounded Knight pitching for nine hits. Aaron Burnett had three and Garnica two. Woodruff, DeForest and Burnett each drove in two runs.

“We should have had that second game,” Craft said. “We just made some uncharacteristic errors-and they were by some kids that generally don’t commit errors. But that happens sometimes.”

With the loss, the Warriors fell to 2-8 for the season.

Coming-The Warriors were scheduled to travel to Hoisington on Tuesday before hosting Wichita Collegiate on Friday.

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