EMPORIA, Kan. -- No doubt, Jayden Brown was seeing the baseball well.
With one out in the second inning, he was a home run shy of hitting for the cycle.
Batting in the leadoff spot, Brown’s four hits and five runs batted in paced St. Mary’s Colgan past second-seeded Spearville 17-0 in three innings Monday afternoon in a Class 2-1A quarterfinal game at the Trusler Sports Complex.
The seventh-seeded Panthers (18-7) posted their fifth consecutive run-rule victory and fourth straight shutout. They face third-seeded Frankfort (24-3), a 13-7 winner over Southern Lyon County, in a semifinal game at 1:15 p.m. Wednesday in Manhattan.
Colgan rapped 13 hits, the first nine coming in a 10-run uprising in the top of the first inning.
Brown, a senior right-fielder, went 4-for-4 with a double and RBI single in the first inning, a two-run triple in the second and a two-run single in the third.
“I was just hitting it well, putting it in play,” Brown said. “We all were. We were pounding it and stacking good ABs (at-bats) on good ABs.
“Just a good day for us. We were just trying to get it going. The balls were dropping.”
Brady Badart, the No. 2 hitter, went 3-for-3 with three singles, a sacrifice fly and two RBI. Carston Simmons drove in three runs with a grounder and two-run single, and Brock Radell and Lane Stultz each had two RBI.
“That’s you plan is you can come out and score runs,” Colgan coach Mike Watt said. “If you can get a lead, everybody relaxes, takes that deep breath and we can just play our game. It removes all that stress and tension, and we did a pretty good job of getting that done.”
Overshadowed by the Panthers’ offensive onslaught was a combined no-hitter by Gabe Brown and Brady Crossland. Brown walked the first two batters he faced, then struck out the next three on 21 pitches. Crossland fanned two and walked one in the last two innings.
“I was kicking around to let Gabe throw another inning,” Watt said. “But it was not really worth it. Brady Crossland did a great job. He only threw 33 (pitches). So we really have all of our arms left (for the next two games). That’s a very positive thing.”
Jayden Brown doubled to left-center to start the game. Brady Badart followed with a single, and both runners scored on Radell’s triple over the left-fielder’s head. Brady Crossland singled to right and continued to third on an outfield error as Radell scored.
Simmons reached on an error to score Crossland, and with one out, Anthony Schremmer hit a run-scoring triple to right field. Schremmer scored on Brady Bettega’s single to center.
After Stultz walked, Jayden Brown singled to right to score Bettega. Badart’s run-scoring single was his second hit of the inning, and Simmons capped the spree with a two-run single to center.
“That’s always your dream, scoring a bunch of runs,” Watt said. “But scoring 10, that’s very unexpected.
“Jayden Brown starts it off with a little bloop double, and then we hit some balls in the gap. Overall up and down the lineup, we did a very good job.”
Two walks, Jayden Brown’s triple to right-center and Badart’s sacrifice fly produced three runs in the second.
Three walks loaded the bases with two outs in the third before two-run singles by Stultz and Brown.
Spearville finished 23-3 as a 16-game winning streak ended.
SM Colgan (10)34 – 17 13 0
Spearville 000 – 0 0 3
Gabe Brown, Brady Crossland (2) and Carston Simmons; Kaleb Konrade, Layson Wheaton (1), Austin Ruiz (3) and Ruiz, Cooper Thompson (3). 2B—SMC: Jayden Brown. 3B—SMC: J.Brown, Anthony Schremmer.
