On Tuesday night, the Blue Jays took on Washburn Rural on senior night. The Blue Jays split with Rural. They won the first game 5-3, and lost the second game 4-1.

On the mound for the Blue Jays in game one was Thane McDaniel. McDaniel looked stellar through four innings. In the fourth inning, Rural managed to string together a few hits and score 3 in that inning. Going into the bottom of the fourth, the Blue Jays were down 3-2.

The score remained this way until the bottom of the 6th. The Blue Jays strung together a rally of their own. With a runner on second and third and two outs, Coach Biery made an executive move to pinch hit Dre Addison for Ty Clark.

Coach Biery later commented on the decision. “I was just playing match-ups. It had nothing to do with Ty, I was just looking for a righty on lefty match-up,” he said.

Well the decision paid off. In the first pitch of the at-bat, Dre Addison shot a ball through the second base hole to tie the ball game.

The rally didn’t stop there either! Next up to bat with runners and second and third was Jose Baquero. With two strikes and two outs in the inning, Baquero hit a ground ball in the second base also. The first baseman managed to field the ball, but because Baquero was speeding down the line, the first baseman panicked and threw the ball away. In the process of all this chaos, the two runners scored which gave the Blue Jays the lead they needed to seal the game.

In between games, the seniors were recognized. They walked out with their parents/guardians and were announced by JV assistant coach Charlie Lynn. They were recognized for their academic achievements, athletic achievements and other things like their favorite Blue Jay and baseball memory.

After the ceremony came the second game. Charlie Peyla was on the bump for the Blue Jays in the second game.

The Blue Jays’ lead-off man, Tim Bell started the game off the right way by splitting a gap in his first at-bat. However, as Bell was getting to third base, Coach Biery told him to keep going and to try and score. Unfortunately, he was thrown out at the plate.

Charlie got through two innings fairly quickly. However, once the third inning came around, he began to struggle.

Rural started to time Peyla’s balls and along with a few walks resulted in 2 Rural runs. After that inning the Blue Jays and Rural were back and forth for an inning. The score was 3-1 going into the 6th inning.

The Blue Jays couldn’t manage a come back and lost to Rural. They play Highland Park on Thursday in Topeka. The Blue Jays record sits at 9-7.