By Jim Henry

St. Mary’s Colgan is in the Class 2-1A baseball state tournament championship game for the second straight year.

The seventh-seeded Panthers (19-7) battle top-seeded Thomas More Prep (27-1) at 6:40 p.m. Friday at Tointon Family Stadium on the Kansas State campus in Manhattan.

Colgan coach Mike Watt continues to add to his state-record coaching resume. He holds KSHSAA records for one coach for state tournament appearances (36), victories (67) and championship game appearances (23). The Panthers are 18-4 in state championship games.

The same two teams met one year ago in the quarterfinal round, and Colgan posted a 2-0 victory.

This season the Panthers have defeated second-seeded Spearville 17-0 in three innings and third-seeded Frankfort 4-3.

The Monarchs downed eighth-seeded Humboldt 10-0 in five innings and fourth-seeded Rossville 6-2 to reach the championship round.

Thomas More Prep had just four hits against Humboldt but received six walks and were aided by three errors. Pitcher Ty Schmeidler threw 73 pitches, making him eligible to throw against Colgan.

The Monarchs trailed Rossville 2-1 until the bottom of the third when Schmeidler tied the game with a run-scoring triple and Caden Dinkel followed with a two-run home run, one of his three hits.

The Panthers jumped out to a 4-0 lead against Frankfort.

Carston Simmons drove in two runs with a single in the first inning and a groundout in the third. Gabe Brown also had a run-scoring single in the third, and Jayden Brown scored the first run when he led off the game with a triple and continued home on a throwing error.