Saints Stay Alive With Win Over Colby

DODGE CITY, Kan. – The seven-seed Seward softball team earned a 4-1 win over the fourth-seeded Colby Trojans on Saturday afternoon in an elimination contest at the Region 6 Tournament.

Seward (21-32) advances to play two-seed Butler at 9 p.m. on Saturday in another elimination game. The Saints lost 11-5 to Butler in the tournament opener. Seward, Butler, Hutchinson and Dodge City are the final four remaining teams in the tournament.

With the win over Colby, Seward wins the season series 3-2.

The Saints got a complete game effort from Grace Horne (W, 9-14) as she tossed all 7.0 innings allowing a lone run on four hits. She walked three and struck out one.

A double off the bat of Amithys Perez in the first inning staked the Saints to a 1-0 lead. A bases loaded walk from Ella Doxey in the fourth made it 2-0. Doxey singled in the sixth to score Jewell Carleton making it 3-0 and a Taylor Harding fielder's choice a few batters later scored Emily Lane to make it 4-0.

Colby plated its lone run in the bottom of the sixth as Briley Christensen singled to right field, scoring Ava Pezely.

Mya Van Der Mey kept her hot bat alive, finishing 3-4 in the game.

Colby used two pitchers with starter Alison Nikolaus (L, 6-8) being tagged with the loss allowing two runs on three hits. She walked five and struck out five.

The win marks the first time in four seasons that the Saints have won at least two games in the tournament, with the last being 2022.