2019 AA/AAA State Tournament – Bracket

The 2019 AA/AAA State Legion Baseball Tournament wrapped up pool play Friday night in Hays and the Sabetha Raptors suffered just their second loss of the season falling to a very good Iola team by a final of 9-4 to end pool play 2-1.

In a rare time this season Sabetha found themselves down 1-0 after the top of the first inning to Iola, but the Raptors came right back and tied the game in the bottom of the inning on a sac fly from Joe Gruber.

The Indians came right back with three more runs in the third to take a 4-1 lead as they took advantage of two hits, two walks and a Sabetha error.

The Raptors weren’t going to go down easily though as they got back within a 4-3 score with two runs in the third taking advantage of an RBI single from Gruber and an error by Iola.

The Indians then tacked on a run to make it 5-3 in the fourth thanks to another Sabetha error, but the Raptors came right back with a run of their own in the fifth scoring on a groundout to pull within 5-4.

Trevor Kramer was the starting pitcher for Sabetha and pitched into the seventh inning, but after he walked the leadoff batter in the seventh, he was forced to come out due to the pitch count rule and from there Iola plated four runs to put the game away.

Joe Gruber was named our McDonald’s Player of the Game despite the loss, as he finished 2-for-3 with two singles, two RBI and two runs scored.

Although the Raptors suffered a loss they did qualify for Saturday’s action as the No. 2 team in pool B and they await the pool A winner Saturday morning at 10 a.m. with live coverage on 103.9 KNZA.

If Sabetha wins that game, they would then play for the state championship at 3:15, but a loss would end the Raptors season.