Just one year after shocking the state of Kansas and capturing the 3A state title the Sabetha baseball team made the return trip to state Thursday evening and picked up right where they left off last year beating Baxter Springs 6-5 in the opening round.

It wasn’t easy though for the Bluejays who found themselves down 2-0 after the top of the first inning, but Sabetha responded with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game. Joe Gruber led off the inning with a double and scored on an RBI-single from Gabe Garber, before Garber came around to score on a groundout by Kamden Brownlee.

After the Lions went down in order in the third, the Bluejays took the lead with three runs in the bottom of the second on an RBI-single and a steal of home by Gruber while Drew Schmelzle grounded in a run.

Baxter Springs pulled within 5-4 with a run in the third and one in the fifth, but Sabetha was able to add a run in the bottom of the fifth on another RBI-single from Gruber.

The Lions did score a run in the sixth to pull within one, but in the seventh Sabetha starter Braden Argabright shut the door to preserve the victory.

Argabright battled all day game long despite shaky command early as he threw a complete game allowing five runs on eight hits while striking out eight.

Offensively Sabetha was led by Gruber’s big day as the senior went 3-for-4 with two RBI’s and two runs scored, while Gabe Garber had a multi-hit game as well.

The Bluejays improved to 19-3 with the win and advance to the semifinals Friday afternoon where they will take on Minneapolis around 1:15 p.m. with live coverage on 92.1 KMZA.