By Fred Solis
The Hutchinson Tribune
ANDALE—The Andale-Garden Plain Indians split their final doubleheader of the season against Pratt last Thursday, taking the first game 8-2 and falling 12-9 in the nightcap. The Indians, 15-11, won four of their last five games and now move on to the postseason with an AVCTL-IV league title.
The league championship is a far cry from the program that struggled to win games two years ago before Coach Adam Krol took over.
“Last year we had a bunch of young guys that worked really hard and got better over the summer,” Krol said, crediting the hard work of his players for the turnaround. “Hopefully we continue to play really good baseball and pile up a bunch of those W’s and limit those L’s. That’s ultimately what we’re trying to do.”
In the Game 1 win over the Greenbacks, the Indians scored runs in the first four innings: one in the first, two in the second, two in the third, and three in the fourth, while Andale-Garden Plain pitching held Pratt scoreless for five innings.
Noah Stanley, Easton Rieger, Nolan Pfannenstiel, and Elijah Durham had one RBI apiece, and Jared Flax and Greyson Winter each drove in two runs for the Indians.
Starter Patrick Keehn and relievers Blake Winter and Jackson Short combined for eight strikeouts while giving up seven hits over seven innings. The Greenbacks’ scoring came in the sixth inning with one run and another in the seventh.
“We pitched the ball really well, threw a lot of strikes,” Krol said. “There’s a lot of zeros up on the board, which is always a good sign.”
Game 2, however, was another story. Andale-Garden Plain errors and wild pitches led to seven of Pratt’s 12 runs in the game as the Indians went through five pitchers.
Pratt got its first run in the first inning on a wild pitch and scored their next two on an error in the second. The Greenbacks added another run in the third on a seeing-eye single through the left side.
Still, the Indians held an 8-4 advantage through the first three innings. Easton Linnens’ infield hit scored Austin Bugner in the first inning, while Cruz Kaiser knocked in two with a triple to center field.
Andale-Garden Plain sent nine batters to the plate in the second inning and again got an RBI from Linnens, one from Rieger, and two more on Kaiser’s double to right. The Indians got another run in the third on a Greenbacks error and the game seemed in hand with a 7-3 lead.
But Pratt came back in the fourth when they sent nine batters to the plate and scored five runs on an Indians’ error, two wild pitches, and a single to take a 9-8 lead. They never trailed after that.
The Greenbacks padded their lead with a run in the fifth and two in the sixth while the Indians rallied for a run in the seventh on Pfannenstiel’s sac fly for the final 12-9 tally. Kaiser led the way for the Indians with four RBIs, Linnens had two, and Stanley, Rieger, and Pfannenstiel each added one.
“It’s hard to win games when your opponents keep putting up crooked numbers against you,” Krol said. “We made a few errors the second game, and we didn’t have any of the first game.
“That’s usually not a good combination when you walk them and commit a few errors and then their good guys get up and hit the ball, and they make you pay for giving up a bunch of free bases,” he added.
With the regular season behind them, the Indians turn their attention to the 4A regional tournament, where No. 6-seeded Andale-Garden Plain takes on No. 11 Circle (14-12) at McPherson this week. Tournament host McPherson (21-5), the No. 3 seed, faces No. 14 Buhler (10-16).
Other hosts, seedings, records and matchups are listed below.
At Mulvane: No. 1 Wildcats (23-1) vs. No. 16 Abilene (8-14); and No. 8 Clay Center Community (13-11) vs. No. 9 Rose Hill (14-12).
At Pratt: No. 4 Greenbacks (21-5) vs. No. 13 Larned (10-13); and No. 5 Augusta (16-8) vs. No. 12 Ulysses (9-11).
At Concordia: No. 2 Panthers vs. No. 15 Chapman (9-15); and No. 7 Lyons-Sterling (14-11) vs. No. 10 Clearwater (14-12).
“We’ve always thought like we could play with anybody,” Krol said. “It’s just a matter of what team shows up. When we’re really good on the mound and we play good defense and we hit the ball there’s not very many teams we can’t compete with.
“It’s the consistency of coming out every single day and continue to get better and, like I always say: Do the routine things really, really well, and you’re going to find a lot of success, especially in high school and baseball,” Krol said.