BonnerSprings.com

Kansas City, Kan. — A varsity roster that included four freshmen and just one senior gave every indication that the Bonner Springs baseball team was building for the future this year.

An 8-10 record served as evidence that improvement had been made but there still was room left to grow.

The Braves found out just how much room they have to grow on Monday during the Class 5A regional tournament at Eisenhower Field.

They hammered Washington in the semifinals, 17-2, but turned around and got drubbed by traditional power Shawnee Heights in the finals, 12-0.

"It's disappointing to lose, but I'm proud of our guys because we didn't quit," BSHS coach Rick Moulin said. "The better team usually wins in baseball, and in this case the better team won. Shawnee Heights : they're a good baseball team, and they're better than us."

The Thunderbirds sent senior Trevor Worthington to the mound for the finals. He wasn't overpowering, but he relied on his sure-handed defense to make plays.

In fact, the first six Bonner Springs batters all made solid contact off of Worthington, but the middle infielders made the routine plays with ease for outs.

Bonner Springs junior Luke Terrell started on the mound against Heights, and he was effective early, picking off a base runner for an out and forcing two more ground balls to escape the first inning unscathed.

Heights capitalized off of a leadoff double and a walk in the second inning, however. Both runners scored on a towering three-run home run by junior Garrett Brower that barely snuck over the wall in left field.

The 3-0 deficit quickly grew in the third inning. Shawnee Heights piled on eight more runs off of five walks, three hits and an error. The T-Birds added one more run in the fourth inning before completing the run-rule victory in the fifth inning.

Moulin said he thought his team did a lot of good things throughout the day - particularly against Washington.

A handful of early miscues helped BSHS dig a 5-2 deficit, but the Braves responded with a 12-run fourth inning to put the game away in decisive fashion. Junior Austin Anderson allowed just three hits in 4 2/3 innings of work against Washington.

"We've continually gotten better all season, and we wanted to be playing our best baseball tonight," Moulin said. "In that first game, throw out a couple mistakes, a couple errors, but we played really well against a good Washington team that had 12 wins. And then we ran into these guys (Shawnee Heights) and we hit the ball hard but we hit the ball right at people, and unfortunately gave up some free passes and they hit the ball hard also and they found a lot of gaps."

Anderson said the performance against Heights was a good learning experience that would help the Braves in the future.

"We did what we needed to that first game. The second game it just didn't happen," he said. "But they're a great ball team. I think they're going to do very well in the state tournament. I really do."

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