Comets beat Beavers in Class 2A district game

 WELLMAN — The Wilton Beaver baseball team is accustomed to making deep postseason runs. For example, last year the Beavers reached the Substate round of the Class 2A tournament a year after making the 2018 state baseball tournament. This year has been different for the Beavers. Eight new starters and the rebuilding of their traditionally strong pitching rotation along with disruptions from the CoVid-19 pandemic.
 All those factors were reset last Monday in the first round of the postseason tournament in the Beavers first round game with West Liberty at Mid-Prairie. There, the Wilton saw their season end, with a tight one-run loss, 6-5. The Beavers lost to the Comets 4-3 during the regular season. Wilton ends the season 5-9-1 and finish the season on a three-game losing streak.
Wilton last lost to West Liberty in the postseason in the 2011 season in a 7-6 in a walk-off hit in a game played in Durant. The Beavers have held a 23-4 record over the Comets in their last 27 meetings with West Liberty since the 2009 season.
 West Liberty scored the games first run in the bottom of the second inning for a 1-0 lead. That lead held until Wilton tied the game at 1-1 with a run in the top of the fifth. West Liberty seemingly took command of the game in the bottom of the fifth, exploding for five runs to take a commanding 6-1 lead. Wilton didn’t quit and tried to rally in the remaining two innings. Wilton plated four runs in the top of the sixth to pull within one run, 6-5, but could not get closer.
 Jackson Hull took the loss after working five innings. Hull gave up six runs on seven hits. Hull struck out six and walked three batters. Karson Willey pitched one-inning of scoreless relief of Hull in the sixth and gave up one hit. Wilton had only three hits in the game. GageHagen led Wilton, going 2-for-4 with a RBI and three stolen bases. Caleb Sawvell had the other Beavers hit. Sawvell scored two of the Beavers runs. Jackson Hull had three walks while Chase Garvin, Nolan Townsend, Sawvell, and Clayton Guyer all reached base via a walk.
 West Liberty had nine hits in the game with four players collecting two hits each. Lake Newtown, Talen Dengler, Will Esmoil, and Collin Cassady each had two hits. Esmoil had two RBI’s and Cassady had one RBI. Sophomore Caleb Wulf started the game and pitched 5 ⅔ innings. He struck out eight, walked five and gave up four runs on three hits. Talen Dengler pitched 1 ⅓ innings in relief of Wulf and earned the win. He did not allow a hit, but did let Wilton score a run.
 Trailing 1-0, Wilton tied the game in the top of the fifth. Caleb Sawvell walked to lead off the inning and came around to score on a wild pitch. Trailing 6-1, the Beavers scored four runs in the sixth and sent ten batters to the plate in the inning. In the sixth, Nolan Townsend, Karson Willey, and Caleb Sawvell all reached base with one-out in successive at-bats. All three would later score along with another run in a four-run sixth for Wilton, setting the score at 6-5. Wilton went down in order in the seventh with a line-out and two fly outs.