Gallery • 9 Photos

Nicole Tenold

The red light of the final score of the Blue Valley Northwest vs. Blue Valley West (BVW) varsity baseball games bleeds through the light bulbs as many seniors come to the realization that their final game with the BVNW Huskies has just ended in defeat. The seniors make an attempt to wipe the tears flowing from their eyes as they hug the underclassmen teammates. Even BVNW’s head coach’s son Ty Lange, the bat boy, was devastated by the lost, claiming the only reason the team didn’t win was because he didn’t carry the bats back to the dug out fast enough. Overall, Coach Lange said the team fought very hard.

“They battled every pitch that was played,” Lange said. “They played together, they kept fighting, they did everything that anybody would ever want a team to do to compete and they competed really well.”

BVNW had just won their first game of the night against SMNW 6-4 before heading straight into their second game, this time against BVW. At the top of the first inning, the Huskies started the game with a walk from senior Sam Chadick. Next up is senior Clayton Custer advances Chadick to second but finds himself out at first. Senior Jackson Fuller is next up with another walk and Chadick steals to third. Senior Alex Penner walks up to the bat with only one out on his back. The pitcher walks Penner, making the bases loaded for Senior Chase Kilty, who strikes out. Sophomore Jack Duke is the third out, striking out as well. During the bottom of the first, after one out the Huskies made a double play by shortstop Custer tossing the ball to second and then second baseman, sophomore Nick Melin throwing the ball to first which reached the base before the batter. At the end of the first inning the score was 0-0.

The top of the second started with Melin striking out but senior John Eckert making contact with the ball, sending it to deep left field and himself to first base. Sophomore Jack Knutson comes up to bat, during which Eckert steals to second. Chadick, at bat again, making the third out against Huskies a strike out. At the bottom of the second, the Jaguars score three runs with deep into left field, allowing the bases to be swiped clean of players.

Custer leads off the third inning with a line drive to second which hops past the shortstop allowing Custer to advance to first. Next at bat is Fuller, who strikes out making that the first out for the Huskies. Penner gets walked to first advancing Custer to second base. Kilty is the second strike out and second out of the inning. Duke at bat and the first pitch bounces across the home plate allowing Custer to steal third base. With Custer at third and Penner on second, two outs, Duke strikes out. The Huskies recovering some momentum by making a double play on the second batter automatically giving the team two outs. However the Jaguars strike back with the third bat swinging out a triple to center field. The Huskies quickly get the last out with no Jaguars scoring. The third inning ended with a score of 0-3, BVW.

The fourth inning leads off with a walk from Melin, followed by three back to back strike outs from Eckert, Knutson, and Chadick. All the players walked away from home base frustrated by the pitchers incredible speed. During the bottom of the fourth inning, the Huskies catch a pop up in both right and center field. The Jaguars hit a line drive to third which hops past the third baseman allowing one Jaguar to score home. Huskies now replace the pitcher, Fuller with Penner. Penner’s first pitch to the batter makes contact and soars out to center field. The center field man for the huskies lets the ball bounce in front of him, which could have been fatal, if he had not quickly recovered, thrown it to short stop who then threw it to home, getting the batter out at home. This play made Husky fans jump to their feet with amazement while Jaguar fans grunted in disprovable.

The fifth inning is a quick three up, three down from the Huskies. However the Huskies protect the plate and do not allow any of the BVW players to make it to third base before getting a quick three outs. Coach Lange said the team sees a lot of strong pitchers throughout the year.

“This team is very good and I give them a lot of credit,” Lange said. “He hit his spots and competed well. Yet I felt like we did too. At the end of the day they had a good night and I wish them luck at state.”

The fifth inning concluded with the score of 0-4, BVW.

The sixth inning seemed to turn things around for the Huskies. However the inning started off with a line drive from Kilty to shortstop, getting out at first. Duke up to bat, hit the ball into field allowing him to snag first base. Sophomore Nathaniel Vossman walks up to hit for the first time during the game. After battling the three balls-two strikes with many foul balls, Vossman takes a hit and walks to first. Duke advances to second. Eckert hits a pop up to second making that the second out of the inning. Before Knutson has a chance to attempt to hit, the Jaguars switch pitchers. The pitcher walks Knutson, making the bases loaded. Chadick hits the ball into right field bringing in two Huskies. Custer strikes out at bat, making that the third out of the inning. While the Huskies defend the outfield, their final out is brought in by a pop up to the outfield.

The game came to an end in the seventh inning 2-6, with BVW winning Regionals.

All players declined to comment.