Collin Smith

After a third-place finish at the 4A-I tournament last season, the Augsuta baseball team has high expectations for the 2018 campaign. The Orioles opened the season with a home sweep of Winfield, before traveling to Mulvane to take on the Wildcats. Augusta had their hands full in game one as they trailed 4-0 after one inning, but fought back to grab a 6-5 lead in the fourth inning. Augusta padded their lead with two more runs in the fifth inning, before both teams went scoreless in the final two innings as Augusta came out with an 8-5 road win. Augusta junior Dominik Ketchum picked up the first varsity win of his career. Ketchum finished with four strikeouts in five innings. Jaren Jackson led Augusta at the plate with four hits and two runs batted in.

Game two took eight innings to determine a winner. Neither team was able to take a comfortable lead in the first five innings. In the sixth inning, Augusta doubled their run total and took a 6-3 lead in the top of the inning. The Orioles held onto their 6-3 lead until Mulvane finished off a clutch seventh inning to the game and sent it to extra innings. Augusta quickly scored a run and held Mulvane scoreless in the bottom of the inning to improve to 4-0 with a 7-6 win.

The Orioles will face Circle (4-0) on Thursday, April 5 at Augusta High School.