MANHATTAN — After losing their first four games of the Class AAA American Legion baseball season, the Great Bend Chiefs enter a short layoff coming off two straight victories.
The Chiefs beat host Manhattan 7-5 on Friday and then toppled rival Hays 7-5 on Saturday to finish 2-2 in the Manhattan Tournament of Champions at Tointon Family Stadium on the Kansas State University campus.
“I can’t complain about the way we finished,” Chiefs head coach Michael Stettinger said.
In the win over Hays on Saturday, Great Bend’s Danny Herrman made a diving catch in right field in the bottom of the seventh inning with a baserunner at third base and the tying run at the plate, preserving the 7-5 win.
“We had several great plays in the field, including Danny Herrman making a diving catch to the end the game in the win over Hays,” Stettinger said. “We barely had any hits.”
Dakota Conaway had two hits, including a squeeze bunt in the second inning that pushed across the Chiefs’ first run.
Herrman and Bryce Beck also had singles.
“Their pitcher walked some batters and we took advantage, scoring five runs in the fourth inning and we really played good defense in that game,” Stettinger said.
“Bryce Beck probably pitched the best game I have seen him have all year long.”
Right-hander Beck scattered nine hits in getting the complete-game victory.
In the 7-5 win over Manhattan Manko on Friday, The Chiefs’ Nick Ney, a pitcher for Barton Community College, threw a complete game and several Chiefs had multiple hits in the win, highlighted by a five-run fourth.
Mitch Kottas was 2-for-5 with two doubles and three runs batted in, while Ney was 2-for-4, including a double, and drove in a run.
Connor Sell was 2-for-5, including a double, and Conaway had two singles in five at-bats.
“Braden Jones got our first run across with a squeeze bunt in the third inning and it got our offensive going because we hadn’t scored anything in the first two games,” Stettinger said of opening-day losses to the Salina and Topeka on Thursday.
The Chiefs (2-4) will be back in action next Wednesday, when they travel to Hays to play Thomas More Prep-Marian in a doubleheader, starting at 6.
                                                                                          — Mack McClure