BURLINGTON — The Class 3A regional baseball championship title went Humboldt’s way Wednesday when they took down Council Grove and Southeast of Saline in Burlington.
The Cubs (22-1) used an early barrage of runs in both games to take victories of 11-0 over Council Grove and 5-4 over Southeast of Saline. Kyler Isbell and Trey Sommer got the wins on the mound for the Cubs and Blake Ellis and Colden Cook each drove in a team-high three runs.
“It’s really been fun to see them come together here as the season has gone on,” Humboldt head coach Mike Miller said after advancing to the state tournament. “To see them come up with some big time plays today was really good to see.”
Council Grove — 11-0 win
Humboldt got straight to business, scoring two runs in the first inning, three in the third and five in the fifth for the 11-0 run- rule victory.
Sommer knocked home a team-high three runs while Ellis drove in another two runs to lead Humboldt at the plate. Sam Hull, Logan Page, Colden Cook and Cole Mathes each drove in one run in the onslaught.
Kyler Isbell started on the mound and worked five innings of shutout ball with only two hits. He also struck out three Braves and walked two.
“Our pitchers did a phenomenal job all day and Kyler was awesome in game one,” Miller said. “For him to go a complete game and allow us to save Trey and Logan for game two was huge. I trusted that he was going to pitch in a big spot for us and he came through.” 
When Sommer ripped a two-run double to right field in the fourth inning, it gave Humboldt a comfortable 6-0 advantage.
Mathes then walked with the bases loaded in the fifth inning for the Cubs to take a 7-0 lead. Hull smacked an RBI single to left field for the 8-0 lead before Ellis had an RBI ground ball to the pitcher which he muffed and allowed a Humboldt run to come home for the 9-0 lead.
Later in the fifth inning, Sommer ripped an RBI double to right field which brought in two runs and put a cap on an 11-0 run-rule victory to advance to the championship.
Hull, Ellis and Sommer each had a team-high two hits while Hull and Ellis each scored a team-high three runs.
Council Grove’s Braun Frye started on the mound and worked two innings, allowing five runs on four hits while striking out two. Ace Monihen threw the final 2.1 frames, allowing six runs on three hits with three strikeouts.
Southeast of Saline — 5-4 win
The Cubs scored all five runs across the first two innings and held off a late game comeback from Southeast of Saline when they scored one run in each of the third through sixth innings for Humboldt’s 5-4 victory.
Cook smacked an RBI single to left field to take a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Page then scored on a wild pitch for the Cubs to go up 2-0 heading to the second.
“I want our guys to be aggressive all the time so for them to come out in big games like these two we had today and give our pitchers an early lead and let them settle in is always big,” Miller said. “In a game like this against really good pitching, to get out to that early lead was obviously huge because it came down to a one-run game.”
