Late Push Not Enough as Saints Swept by No. 3 Cloud County

LIBERAL, Kan. – The Seward County baseball team hosted the No. 3-ranked Cloud County Thunderbirds on Wednesday afternoon at Brent Gould to kick off the final regular season series of the 2026 season.

Seward (23-33, 15-15) fell 9-1 in game one and 13-12 in game two as the T-Birds (45-5, 26-4) clinched the 2026 KJCCC West regular season championship. The Saints currently sit in fourth place in the West.

Seward honored its 20 sophomores in a pregame ceremony.

The series will conclude on Saturday in Concordia, first pitch at 1 p.m.

Game 1: Cloud County 9, Seward 1 (7 Inn.)

Seward was kept off balance by the T-Bird pitchers in game one, not plating a run until the bottom of the seventh off a Grant Cox RBI single.

Cloud starter Stocton Timbrook (W, 7-0) tossed 5.0 scoreless innings striking out five and walking two.

Seward got a strong start from Michael Lujan (L, 4-5) who struck out eight and walked two in 4.1 innings, allowing three runs. Lujan and the Saints worked out of consecutive jams in the third and fourth innings with runners on second and third and no outs.

Cox was 2-3, the lone Saint with multiple hits. Cloud outhit Seward 11-5 and was led by Vasya Seymour's three RBIs. The T-Birds used a six-run fifth inning to take a 7-0 lead.

Game 2: Cloud County 13, Seward 12 (9 Inn.)

Game two saw Cloud pounce on Seward starter Cross Durham (L, 1-5) with four runs in the top of the first.

Seward immediately answered with four runs in the bottom half, highlighted by a bases-clearing double off the bat of Jorge Beitia Tunon. Tunon finished 3-5 with five runs driven in.

Cloud retook the lead in the second with two more runs but a Tunon RBI single made it a 6-5 game in the third for Seward. Cloud then scored seven unanswered runs from the fourth through the ninth to go ahead 13-5.

Down to their final three outs, Seward plated seven runs on five hits and an error in the bottom of the ninth to pull within a run at 13-12. Diego Valero-Munoz had a two-run single, Tunon singled up the middle to score David Brabb, an error scored two runs and Juan Alvarez doubled to left field to score two.

With the tying run on second and the winning run at the plate, the Saints struck out to end the rally and the game.

Alvarez finished with a career-high five hits going 5-6 with two RBIs and two runs scored.

Simon Baker was 4-6 with four RBIs for the T-Birds. Ian Razak (W, 7-0) earned the win getting the start allowing five runs across 5.0 innings.

Seward was outhit 15-14 and made three errors to Cloud's one.