Cardinal fans, don’t be sad, ’cause two out of three ain’t bad.

The Ell-Saline baseball squad bounced back from a semifinal round loss at the 2A-1A State Baseball Championship in Great Bend Friday afternoon to claim victory in the third-place game, 16-6 over the Chase County Bulldogs.

After scoring just three runs in it’s first two State playoff games, the Ell-Saline (18-8) offense found its thunder against the seventh-seeded Bulldogs, racing out to a 7-0 lead after two innings.

Chase County (15-11) battled back in the third, plating three runs to cut the Ell-Saline lead to four at 7-3, but the fifth-seeded Cardinals continued to soar at the dish, answering back with three fourth-inning tallies to extend the advantage back out to seven at 10-3, chasing Bulldog freshman pitcher Joesph Soyez from the hill after allowing ten runs over 3 2/3 innings of work.

After a fifth inning Ell-Saline score made it 11-3, the Bulldogs made one final run at the Cardinals, hanging another three runs on the scoreboard to trim the Chase County deficit to 11-6 following the top of the sixth inning.  ‘

Ell-Saline would finish off the victory in the bottom of the sixth.  Following a three-run outburst earlier in the inning, two Cardinal runs scored on a two-out throwing error to put Ell-Saline ahead 16-6, invoking KSHSAA’s 10-after-5 rule to end the game.

Cardinal junior Joel Came went the distance to earn the victory, allowing six runs, four earned, on six hits while walking three and striking out two

Each of the nine Cardinals in the starting lineup reached base in the win.

1. Murphy Seim: 2-for-3, 4R, 2SB, 2HBP, RBI

2. Owen Bradley:  1-for-2, RBI, R, BB, SB

3. Nathan Parks:  2-for-4, 2B, 3RBI, 3R, BB

4. Richard Davis:  1-for-3, RBI, R, SB, HBP

5. Brandon Headlough:  0-for-2, 2BB, RBI, SB

6. Spencer Came:  2-for-3, 2RBI, R, BB

7. Kaden Griffin:  1-for-4, 3B, 2RBI

8. Connor Anglin:  0-for-2, 2R, 2BB, SB

9. Joel Came:  0-for-2, R, BB

Ell-Saline found success off the bench as well, with pinch hitters Avery Bradley and Josh Brandt scoring pinch-hit singles, while Malik Myers reached base in a pinch-hit appearance after being hit by a pitch.