By BEN KLEINE

Staff writer

Marion Senior Babe Ruth clinched a trip to the state tournament with 9-2 win Saturday over Inman in Lyons.

The turning point was the third inning. Although Marion scored three in the bottom half of the second, Inman loaded the bases on pitcher Heath Hill and scored two runs. With the bases still juiced and only one out, coach Tyler Mermis called on Ethan Hett to extinguish the momentum.

Hett struck out the next two batters to end the inning.

“Every time we’ve called on him this summer, he’s just located,” Mermis said. “It’s all about how he locates his ball. Every pitch he threw was located.”

Mermis said the Warriors were determined to take advantage of the opportunity and continued to pile on runs over the next three innings.

Marshall Ragland led the surge with a 2-for-3 effort, including a warning-track ground-rule double that Mermis concluded would have left the park in Marion.

Hett pitched two more innings before Ragland came in and finished the job. Ragland pitched in every game during the district tournament: two innings to close out the game against Abilene Thursday, five innings in a starting effort against Inman on Friday, and then two more innings against Inman Saturday.

“You tell him what you want and he’ll do it,” Mermis said. “There are not a lot of people who can hit Marshall.”

Although the Warriors hit and pitched well, defense was the theme of the weekend.

In a 7-2 Heath Hill win against Abilene on Thursday and an 11-3 victory over Inman on Friday, Marion did not commit any errors.

“Since the high school season, I can go back and point to these games with no errors as games we win,” Mermis said.

Three defensive plays stood out for Mermis.

Corey Seacat had an unassisted double play at shortstop Friday.

On a bloop fly drifting into short right center on Saturday, second baseman Cole Lewman tracked the ball and reached up with his gloved arm fully extended to snare the out.

“I didn’t think he was going to be able to catch it,” Mermis said.

In the seventh inning Saturday, the Warriors committed two errors, but one was transformed from a negative to a positive in a few seconds. Seacat overthrew first base on a ground ball, but catcher Matt Sprowls hustled up the first base line to cover first. Sprowls threw out an unsuspecting Inman runner heading for second.

“It was just a rifle shot,” Mermis said.

Marion will play noon Friday in Liberal against the winner from District 3.