No. 7-seeded Girard baseball upended Jefferson West 6-1 during a Class 3A state quarterfinal game Monday at Blue Valley West High School in Overland Park.

Junior pitcher Kam Smith showed his usual stuff on the mound, sophomore Bryor Schultz pitched scoreless relief and the offense generated six runs on five hits with one run in the fourth, two in the fifth and three in the sixth.

Jefferson West contributed to its own early demise by committing five errors and walking five Girard batters. The Tigers entered the game 24-2 with nine straight wins.

Girard improved to 22-5 on the season entering Wednesday’s semifinal against either No. 3 Burlington (23-2) or No. 6 Frontenac (17-4), who started at approximately 5:45 Monday night at Blue Valley West.

Lawrence was originally slated to be the host site for 4A, 3A and 2-1A baseball, but the Jayhawks won the Big 12 tournament and earned the right to host NCAA Regionals for the first time in school history, beginning on Friday.

KSHSAA moved the 4A, 3A and 2-1A semifinals, place and championship games to Tointon Family Stadium in Manhattan, longtime host site for 3A baseball.

Silver Lake (17-11) knocked off top-seeded Council Grove in a quarterfinal game at the Trisler Sports Complex (Emporia). Council Grove entered the game 26-1.

Girard and the Burlington-Frontenac winner play at approximately 5:45 Wednesday.

Back to Monday’s game for the Trojans.

Smith earned the win and he allowed one run (earned) on two hits with nine strikeouts, one walk and one hit batter over 5 2/3 innings. He finished at 72 pitches and threw 49 of them for strikes.

Schultz picked up the final four outs and he gave up one hit with no strikeouts and no walks.

Robbie Bruning led Girard’s offense with two hits and Schultz drove in two runs. Leadoff man Briggs Buckingham worked a pair of walks.

Down 1-0 in the fourth, Bruning led off the inning by reaching on an infield single. Bruning advanced to second on Blake Brokob’s 5-3 groundout and then scored on an error by the Jefferson West third baseman.

The Trojans broke the tie when Buckingham scored from second on Aiden Ashbacher’s single to left. Buckingham and then Schultz worked walks from Jefferson West starter Cooper Watkins.

Schultz then scored on Bruning’s single to left.

Schultz’s two-run single closed out the scoring right after a second run scored from a Jefferson West error.

Girard 000 123 0 — 6 5 0

JWHS 001 000 0 — 1 3 5

Kam Smith, Bryor Schultz (6) and Blake Brokob; Cooper Watkins, Brody Thelen (5), Cooper Knox (6) and Ryan Pressler. W: Smith. L: Watkins. 2B—JWHS: Corbin Mayer.

This sports reporting is made possible, in part, by the Support Local Journalism Project Fund. Learn more at: southeastkansas.org/fund/support-local-journalism-project-fund/