HUMBOLDT — Humboldt High’s baseball team survived some late drama Friday to win the Walter Johnson Tournament. The Cubs’ 8-6 win over Lamar, Mo., keeps Humboldt undefeated on the season.
“I was very proud of the way we competed,” Humboldt head coach Mike Miller said. “That’s a good baseball team right there and we took advantage of some walks and had some big hits in key situations.”
Trailing 8-2, Lamar scored four runs in the top of the seventh, and had the tying runs in scoring position when the game ended.
“We brought Kason (Siemens) in and he hasn’t thrown a whole lot for us this year,” Miller said. “They hit a few hard ones on him and (the ball) also seemed to have eyes and find a hole. It got interesting but he was able to finish it off.”
Lamar took the lead in the third, scoring once. Humboldt came back with a parade of hits and walks, scoring all eight runs in the bottom of the frame. Hunter Murrow, Siemens, Jacob Carpenter, Calev Vanatta, Corey Whitcomb and Caleb D’Armond all had hits and runs. Grayson Pearish reached on an error and was knocked in as well.
The Tigers scored another run in the fifth to cut the lead 8-2.
Humboldt got to the championship game by crushing Neodesha earlier in the day, 16-0.
MEANWHILE, Iola High’s Mustangs went 1-1. Iola lost to Lamar 11-3 to begin the day.
The Mustangs took the lead 1-0 in the first. Ethan Scheibmeir had a single and came around to score on a base hit by Derrick Weir. Lamar answered back with one in the first to tie the game.
The Tigers took the 3-1 lead in the second scoring twice off of base hits. They scored two more in the third off of five hits. Lamar’s big inning came in the fourth, scoring four on nine hits. Two of those runs scored due to Mustang errors.
“The pitching itself wasn’t bad,” Mustang head coach Mark Percy said. “What made it look worse than it was, we just couldn’t get to the ball. We had some hits and we’re just going to keep working to get better and ready for our road tournament and regionals.”
Down 9-1, Iola scored twice in the inning. Drew Faulhaber and Coleson Wiggin both had base hits and came around to score. Brett Taylor also had a hit.
Lamar scored two more in the seventh. Ryan Latta, Weir and Faulhaber strung together hits.
Iola won its second game of the day against Neodesha, 12-1.
Scheibmeir had two runs scored with two walks. Latta went 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Faulhaber scored twice and had three hits. Bryce Aiello scored twice, with one hit.
