HUMBOLDT — A pair of pitcher’s duels Monday gave fans of Humboldt and Osage City High’s baseball teams a taste of what promises to be a thrilling postseason.
Humboldt and Osage City each entered Monday’s doubleheader in first place in their respective Class 3A regional brackets.
In Game 1, Osage City’s Logun Fager tossed a complete-game three-hitter, shutting out the Cubs 3-0.
Humboldt’s Logan Page was equally as dominant in the nightcap, allowing only an unearned run in the Cubs’ 2-1 victory, giving Osage City (16-3) its first loss in more than a month.
The split leaves the teams still atop their respective regional brackets, but with little to no margin for error in the final week of the regular season.
“That’s a quality baseball team,” Humboldt head coach Mike Miller said of the Indians. “They have good pitching, they play good defense and they can swing the bat up and down the order.”
The pitching dictated both games, Miller noted.
“Logan was locked in tonight, and we needed it,” he said.
Humboldt’s only offense came in the bottom of the first inning of Game 2.
Blake Ellis led off the game with a single against Osage City starter Noah Lohmeyer. Sam Hull followed with an RBI double. Colden Cook followed with a single two batters later to chase home Hull for a 2-0 lead.
A leadoff error in the second inning, followed by a ground ball single to right field accounted for Osage City’s only run.
Page promptly retired 11 in a row, and then easily worked around a leadoff walk in the top of the sixth, retiring the final six batters in order.
He wound up scattering three hits over seven innings with six strikeouts.
Humboldt, meanwhile, came up empty with its other scoring chances, none more promising than the bottom of the fourth. Mason Sterling reached on an error, Kyler Isbell lined a single to left and Brody Gunderman was walked to load the bases with nobody out.
But Lohmeyer induced a couple of short fly balls to the outfield and a ground-out to escape unscathed.
