by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The Wellington Heat won the rubber match of an exciting three-game series with the Liberal Bee Jays Sunday evening that ended with a blustery visit by Mother Nation.

Wellington took two of three games with a big two-run rally in the bottom of the eighth. Then Mother Nature brought blowing wind and flowing rain. But the Heat still had some work to do, retire the Bee Jays with three outs in the top of the ninth. Heat closer Robbie Romero would do just that retiring the next three batters at the plate, and the Heat escaped with a 9-8 victory.

A rainstorm blew through between the eighth and ninth inning, leaving fans less than dry.

The Heat are now 19-1 for the season having suffered their first loss of the season on Friday. Wellington is now 12-1 in the Jayhawk League and leads second-place Derby Twins with a 9-4 record. The Twins come to town Tuesday for Beach Party night sponsored by The Dore. Bring your beach attire.

On Sunday, Wellington had 11 hits to Liberal’s 12, but the Bee Jays had trouble fielding the ball, committing five errors in the field Sunday night. Brandon McMillian was the winning pitcher for the Heat. 

It was a very entertaining three-game series in which all games were decided by one-run affairs. The Heat came into the series undefeated but lost to Liberal Friday 3-2. In that game, Wellington left runners on second and third before Liberal’s Blake Rogers struck out the two Heat players in the bottom of the ninth.

On Saturday, the Heat avenged their only loss of the season thus far with a 2-1 victory. In that game, the Heat rallied late on a Rowdy Andrews walk off RBI single which brought Kirk Rocha home in the bottom of the ninth. Trent Keefer had 12 strikeouts in the game.

Not much has been going wrong this season for the Heat. For the second consecutive year, Wellington took to the road and swept the Hays Larks at their home park a weekend ago.

Wellington then had a couple of exciting rumbles with El Dorado, beating the Broncos 4-3 on Tuesday and then a 4-3 14-inning marathon on Thursday.

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Standings: 

Jayhawk Standings (entering Monday, June 23nd)

1. Wellington Heat 12-1 (19-1 overall)

2. Derby Twins 9-4 (13-5 overall)

3. Hays Larks 7-7 (10-7 overall)

4. Liberal Bee Jays 5-10 (9-10 overall)

5. El Dorado Broncos 5-9 (8-8 overall)

6. Dodge City A’s 3-10 (4- 11 overall)

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Schedule to date:

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