MANHATTAN — After starting the Tournament of Champions with a victory, things took a turn for Great Bend’s Class AAA American Legion baseball team.
The Chiefs fell 6-4 against St. Joseph (Missouri) and 9-0 against Hays on Friday, and dropped a game 4-3 against the Salina Falcons on Saturday to be eliminated from the tournament.
“We played well in all of the games,” Chiefs head coach Michael Stettinger said. “We never really got killed, even in the 9-0 game. We just had a lot of line drives hit right at somebody.
“We’re going to have games where those hits will fall for us the way they’re falling for others. There are a lot of positives to take away.”
Great Bend is back in action when it hosts a tournament on Saturday.
 
St.  Joseph 6,  Chiefs 4
Great Bend found itself behind 6-0 after the top of the fourth inning.
“The problem was we were down 6-0 after the fourth inning,” Stettinger said. “It can be difficult when you’re down like that early.
“We had a really good chance to come back. We were one or two hits away from coming back all the way.”
The Chiefs found their footing in the bottom of the fifth. Great Bend scored a run in the fifth and three runs in the sixth, but couldn’t make up the difference.
Tristan Hall started on the mound for Great Bend, giving up all six runs, four earned. He allowed four hits and seven walks while striking out three.
Jaxx Hillman came on in relief in the fourth inning. He finished the game, giving up five walks and one strikeout.
Shade Wondra had two RBIs, and Dillon Reiser and Anson Hall each had one RBI.

Hays 9, Chiefs 0 (6)
Hays ran up five runs in the top of the second against Great Bend. After that, runs continued to trickle in inning-by-inning.
Tyler Nuss pitched all six innings, scattering 11 hits and walking five. He had two strikeouts.
“Tyler really did pitch a good game,” Stettinger said. “It wasn’t like they poured on runs. They just scored some here and some there.”
Great Bend managed four hits in the game.
 
Salina 4, Chiefs 3
The Chiefs managed two more hits than Salina, collecting seven base knocks and neither team gave up an error, but Salina made the most of its hits to edge Great Bend.
Wondra went all six innings for Great Bend. He allowed five hits and five walks while getting one strikeout.
“Shade had a great game,” Stettinger said. “We had no errors. Our defense made some great plays behind him. It was a really clean game, a really close game.
“Brady Michel got called out at the plate in a borderline call that would’ve tied things up for us. It was a really good game.”
Tristan Hall went 1-for-3 with a pair of RBIs.
Hillman also had an RBI.
 
                                        — Kevin Price