MANHATTAN, Kan. — The Girard baseball program made some more history Friday night in the Class 3A state championship game against Silver Lake at Tointon Family Stadium on the Kansas State campus.
Playing in their first-ever state championship game, the Trojans pushed across five runs in the first and three more in the fifth to earn a dominant 8-0 win over the Eagles.
Junior pitcher Kam Smith was overpowering most of the contest and earned the complete-game victory with no runs on three hits and 10 strikeouts and three walks over seven innings.
Ben Cullen’s three-run triple highlighted the first and Aiden Ashbacher and Robbie Bruning opened the scoring with RBI singles.
Jaxton Smith hit an RBI single in the fifth and two errors allowed the other Girard runs to score.
“Just really proud of the kids,” Girard baseball coach Bob Fornelli said. “They earned it, they’ve worked really hard all year. We’ve got really good kids that work hard and they got better each and every day of the year. Proud of them for how hard they played.
“Any time we can score early with Kam on the mound, we’re pretty good and I’m a pretty good coach when Kam Smith’s pitching. Our guys battled, they came up with a big triple and that was our only extra-base hit of the state playoffs. We hit a bunch of singles that allowed us to score three runs and just really proud of the heart and how they earned it.
“Play hard, play fast and have fun. That’s what we do together. If we do that together, we’re going to be a really good baseball program.”
“It’s great,” Kam Smith said. “I woke up this morning and I knew that I was going to give it everything I have for this town. We enjoyed this tournament. It’s been a lot of fun this week. At the end of the day, I wanted to do it for Girard. It’s been amazing, it’s been amazing to my family. So, I am super lucky to grow up here (Girard) and I’m going to enjoy coming back and seeing everyone.”
The Trojans finish their first season under longtime college head coach Fornelli with a 24-5 record and their first state title and featured just one senior in Ashbacher.
Seventh-seeded Girard defeated No. 2 Jefferson West 6-1 on Monday and No. 3 Burlington 2-1 in the semifinals Wednesday. Trojan pitchers Kam Smith, Bryor Schultz and Bruning surrendered a mere two runs over 21 innings pitched in the state tournament. That’s difficult to beat.
Eighth-seeded Silver Lake upended top seed Council Grove 1-0 on Monday and defeated No. 4 Russell/Victoria 2-1 in eight innings Wednesday.
The championship game, though, was all Girard from the get-go.
Kam Smith retired the Eagles in order in the top of the first and then the Trojans jumped all over Silver Lake freshman Kipton Kruger in the bottom half.
Offensively, Cullen and Jaxton Smith led the Trojans with two hits each in the state title game. Ashbacher and Bruning rounded out the Trojans’ six hits and they also walked six times and reached a seventh time on a hit batter as Silver Lake used three arms in the title game (Kruger, Braden Hogle, Miles Kibbie).
The Trojans ran wild on the bases with 10 stolen bases and Briggs Buckingham, Ashbacher, Bruning and Jaxton Smith each stole two bases. Drake Smith and Schultz also had steals.
Kruger took the loss and he allowed five runs (all earned) on two hits with no strikeouts and two walks over 1/3 inning. Hogle allowed the other three runs (two earned) on four hits with five strikeouts and three walks over 4 2/3 innings.
Meanwhile, Silver Lake managed only three hits against Kam Smith, all three singles.
Silver Lake 000 000 0 — 0 3 2
Girard 500 030 x — 8 6 0
Kipton Kruger, Braden Hogle (1), Miles Kibbee (6) and Dominic Monhollon; Kam Smith and Blake Brokob. W: Smith. L: Kruger. 2B—GHS: Jaxton Smith. 3B—GHS: Ben Cullen.
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
