Resurrection Christian claims 2A baseball crown over Sedgwick County
PUEBLO — Jake Lohr didn’t leave anything to chance in the Class 2A state championship baseball game Saturday.
The senior struck out nine, powering Resurrection Christian to a 5-1 win over Sedgwick County at Hobbs Field at the Runyon Field Sports Complex.
“I just wanted to leave it all out there,” the 6-foot-2, 190-pound right-handed Lohr said. “We wanted to win this state championship so bad and that’s what we came here to do. I had nerves the whole game, but I had complete confidence in the guys behind me. It just feels great to achieve this goal.”
Resurrection Christian finished its memorable season with a 22-3 record. The Cougars advanced to the finals by cruising past defending 2A state champion Denver Christian 13-3 earlier Saturday. Resurrection also won state in 2012.
Sedgwick County ended its campaign at 22-2. Sedgwick had a dramatic 4-1 win over Rye in eight innings in the semifinals. Chase Dunker fanned 15 batters in the win. Dunker, a senior southpaw, finished his season with a 9-0 record and 144 strikeouts.
“This is a special group of boys,” second-year Resurrection coach Grant MacAlmon said. “They understood what the big picture was and I’m so proud of them.”
In the bottom of the second, Resurrection Christian’s Jake Tomcheck came up with bases loaded and he dropped a safety squeeze bunt to give the Cougars a 1-0 lead.
Resurrection kept its offense momentum going in the third frame as Luke Mondt had a lead-off double and then came home on an RBI single by Josh Miller.
Sedgwick County cut the deficit to 2-1 in the top of the fifth on Trey Walter’s sacrifice fly. With two outs, Chase Dunker came to the plate with a runner on third, but Lohr struck out Dunker on some high heat.
In the bottom of the sixth, Del Chance Richardson reached on an error and then the left-handed swinging Mondt smashed a run-scoring triple to right field. Mondt scored moments later on another Sedgwick County error and then Nate Wiggins doubled to put runners on second and third.
Leading 4-1, Cory Wiggins placed a bunt just past the pitcher Tyler Woodhams to score Richardson, giving the Cougars a 5-1 lead.
“We all wanted to win state and we just kept pushing through every game,” Mondt, a junior, said. “I was relaxed up there at the plate, but I give Jake a lot of credit for his solid effort. Plus, our offense came through with some big hits when we needed them.”
Justin Peters, Sedgwick County’s coach, wasn’t making any excuses for his team’s tough defeat.
“There’s not much to be said about it,” Peters said. “Two ball clubs came together and played really hard and the outcome is what it came out to be.”
