McPHERSON, Kan. – McPherson High School Baseball hosted its first quad of the season on Tuesday, April 21, at Grant Sports Complex, winning the first matchup against Emporia, 11-1, before falling just short against Great Bend, 5-4.
BOX SCORE vs. EMPORIA | BOX SCORE vs. GREAT BEND
McPherson (12-4, 5-3 AVCTL-3) began their day against the Emporia Spartans (5-9, 0-6 Centennial). Emporia struck first on a solo home run by Chase Harrington, but McPherson struck back with a three-run first inning after RBI hits by Cowen Huggard, Cade Strathman, and Cru Buchman.
The Bullpups increased their lead with a three-run 4th inning before ending the game via a run rule in the sixth inning, 11-1, thanks to a three-run double by Adrian Unruh. McPherson won on eight hits while allowing only four by Emporia.
Huggard started on the mound for McPherson, not allowing any other runs in six innings, striking out eight batters. He also led the Bullpup offense, hitting 3-3. Unruh had a team-high 3 RBI.
The Bullpups moved on to face Great Bend (9-3, 4-2 Western Athletic) in game two. McPherson struck first on an RBI single by Strathman, driving home Carter Bengtson, to lead 1-0. Great Bend stormed back, however, scoring two in the 4th and three in the 5th to lead 5-1, highlighted by a two-run home run by Trenton Kern.
McPherson battled back, scoring two runs in the 5th inning on an RBI single by Bengtson and an RBI groundout by Huggard. McPherson entered the 7th inning down by two runs, but Bengtson had his third hit of the game on an RBI double to cut the deficit to 5-4. However, the next two batters struck out, ending the game with a 5-4 Great Bend victory.
Colt Chapman started on the mound for McPherson, getting the loss after throwing three innings, allowing two runs (one earned), and striking out three batters. Daxton Minton started for Great Bend, but threw only three innings, disqualifying him from a win. Koehn Ribordy got the win, giving him two wins on the day after earning the win on the mound in their prior game against Rose Hill. Jaxon Wondra threw the last two innings, earning the save.
McPherson will host its second quad of the season on Friday, April 24. McPherson will host Lyons-Sterling in game one, before facing either Rock Creek or El Dorado in the second game at approx. 6:00 p.m.
McPherson’s JV team split their quad on Monday, April 20, defeating Great Bend 8-6 before falling to Emporia 6-3.
