By Staff

            On Tuesday, the Inman baseball team followed pace with pitcher Brant Mikulecky as the pounded Pratt/Skyline for an 8-1 victory in game one of their Class 2-1A regional.

            Now sitting at 12-7 for the season, the third seed in the regional will battle with Leon/Bluestem in the regional semi-final on Wednesday.

            Brant Mikulecky worked the mound for the Wildcats and needed 90 pitches over seven innings to give up just four hits, only one run, while walking none and striking out 17. With his number of strikeouts in the game, Mikulecky broke his own school record for strikeouts in a season as he now had 95 for 2023.

            “As a coach, I was thrilled with Brant’s (Mikulecky) performance today,” noted Teuton head coach Matt Mikulecky. “As a dad, I am beyond proud of how he prepared mentally leading up to this game. I could sense he was going to give everything he had to help the team win and extend our season. He got ahead of hitters all game long and that allowed him to dictate his pitch selection. Jesse (Ballard) called an excellent game behind the plate as those two really work well together.”

            The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fourth when Moundridge exploded for seven runs and then added one in the fifth to gain the final 8-1 win.

            Not only did Mikulecky perform well pitching, but his hitting also garnered a pair of hits that included a three-run home run as well.

            Jess Ballard chipped in with a pair of hits and a double while Samuel Shober and Zaden Johnson recorded two steals each.

INMAN TEUTON BASEBALL vs. Pratt/Skyline at Class 2-1A Regionals

Scoring: Pratt/Skyline > 0-0-0-0-0-0-1 = 1-4-1;  INMAN TEUTONS > 0-0-0-7-1-0-x = 8-7-0.

INMAN TEUTON HITTING (ab-r-h-rbi-bb): Brant Mikulecky > 4-1-2-3-0; Kellen Schrag > 0-0-0-0-0; Samuel Shober > 2-1-1-0-0; Jesse Ballard > 4-0-2-0-0; Zaden Johnson > 2-2-1-0-0; Rhett Gilkey > 2-0-0-2-0; Talon Welch > 2-1-0-0-0; Grant Weins > 2-1-0-1-0; Brody Froese > 3-0-1-0-0; Caleb Bigler > 2-1-0-0-1; Jesse Milleson > 0-0-0-0-0.  Team Totals > 23-8-7-6-2.  2B (1) > J. Ballard – 1.  HR (1) > B. Mikulecky – 1.  SB (8) > S. Shober, Z. Johnson – 2; T. Welch, G. Weins, C. Bigler, J. Milleson – 1.

INMAN TEUTON PITCHING (ip-p-h-r-er-bb-so): Brant Mikulecky > 7.0-90-4-1-1-0-17.

Pratt/Skyline Hitting > 25-1-4-1-0, 1-2B, 1-3B.  Pratt/Skyline Pitching > 6.0-102-7-8-7-2-8.

(The Staff covering McPherson County Activities can be reached by email at crossdovewriter@gmail.com)