Seaman baseball earns doubleheader sweep of Topeka West

Sam Juarez’s incredible catch Tuesday personified a defense that's become Seaman baseball's calling card.

After the Vikings’ doubleheader home sweep of Topeka West, though, head coach Steve Bushnell stressed it’s time for the defending Class 5A champions to start reeling off similar highlights from the batter’s box.

Seaman brushed the Chargers aside, earning a 14-1 victory in five innings in Game 1 and a 6-1 win in Game 2. Juarez made the play of the day in the second inning of the second contest, stealing a surefire extra-base hit from West’s Bryson Bitler with a diving, tumbling and hat-losing grab in center field that kept a runner out of scoring position in what at the time was still a scoreless affair.

While the Vikings (11-3, 8-2 Centennial League) plated 16 total runs in 10 combined innings, the home squad achieved that number mostly through causing havoc on the base paths and by taking advantage of West (1-9-1, 1-4-1) miscues. Seaman finished with 14 total hits in the doubleheader, but just two went for extra bases.

“We’ve got to be more consistent throughout our entire lineup,” Bushnell said. “Our pitching and defense did enough for us tonight, and hopefully offensively, we’ve got to do some things to step it up.”

Both of Seaman’s extra-base hits came in the first inning of the first game, but the Vikings made the most of both in the eventual seven-run frame.

Right fielder Brock Hillebert clubbed the first double, scoring a pair of runners with a lined shot over the second baseman that made the lead 4-0. Later, with two outs and runners on first and third, catcher Brayden Vawter smashed a double to the right field warning track, plating two and making the advantage 7-0.

Seaman sent 11 to the plate in that opening inning, notching three hits while taking advantage of two walks and three West errors.

Charger starter Alejandro Valdes issued only one walk in Game 2, but the Vikings got enough offense to win comfortably, with Cole Askew, Sam Payne and Grant Smith hitting RBI singles to key scoring in the second, third and sixth innings.

“I feel like we haven’t been a really potent offense; I feel like we’ve been an opportunistic offense,” Bushnell said. “At times it’s been difficult to string some hits together, as was apparent in the second game — their guy (Valdes) did a good job throwing strikes and didn’t gift us anything with bases on balls. For the most part, they made plays, which made that game a lot tighter than the first game was. We had to earn everything.”

Starters Parker Wildeman and Blaine Jepson earned victories in Games 1 and 2, respectively, with Jared Stuewe also throwing in the opener. With junior starter Hunter Hesseltine (3.00 ERA) rolling and fellow junior Kolby Dougan (0.28 ERA) returning to form after injury and on the heels of a good showing in his first start Friday, Bushnell appears as bullish on his team’s arms as he is on its defense.

Offense, though, remains the question mark — though there is reason for optimism. The Vikings boast six players ranked in the top 10 in the city in RBIs, a group paced by Juarez, who entered the week atop that category with 14.

“I would say that we’ve got some capable offensive players. It’s just getting them to do that consistently,” Bushnell said. “That’s the key with every coach. We’re still trying to do that, and we’ll be doing it all the way through the regional tournament.”

A regional tournament where, as the defending state champion, Seaman will have everyone’s attention.

“Every year it’s a new dynamic. Finding a way to piece all those little puzzle pieces together is always a challenge," Bushnell said. "I think we’re starting to put some things together and we’re starting to find each strength of our guys and they’re playing into our roles, and that’s going to be huge for us down the stretch.”

SEAMAN 14-6, TOPEKA WEST 1-1

First game (five innings)

Topeka West;001;00;—;1;3;5

Seaman;743;0x;—;14;7;1

Elder and Jursch and Irby. Wildeman and J. Stuewe and Vawter. W — Wildeman. L — Elder. 2B — West: Dougan; Seaman: Vawter, Hillebert.

Second game (seven innings)

Topeka West;000;010;0;—;1;5;1

Seaman;021;003;x;—6;7;0

Valdes and Irby. Jepson and Vawter. W — Jepson. L — Valdes.