The Junction City Blue Jays went back and forth with the Shawnee Mission East Lancers in the opening game of the Class 6A State Baseball Tournament in Lawrence, but ended up falling 5-4.

Shawnee Mission East is the top seed in the tournament and many pick them to win the title this year, but Junction City gave them a run for their money by tying the ball game up on three different occasions before the Lancers took the lead back in the bottom of the 6th inning to hold on to a 5-4 victory.

Drew Biery, JCHS Head Coach explained he is proud of his team no matter what.

“You’ve got to give a lot of credit to our boys, I’m so proud of them. They didn’t care what happened. They tried to play our brand of baseball and we were toe to toe with them the whole game, they were just able to get a couple hits and a key couple of plays to finish off the game,” said Biery.

Senior Tate Zimmerman pitched five innings for the Blue Jays giving up four runs, three of those were earned.

“He went toe to toe with a really good pitching staff that they had on the other side. He got ahead of guys and made good decisions when we really needed him, he limited the damage. He did a great job, and he’s done that all year for us.”

The Blue Jays finish the season 12-11.

The Junction City Brigade won their season opener Wednesday night in Rossville. The Brigade defeated the Rattlers 5-2.

Dalton Shalberg pitched three innings, and then Will Ervin pitched three innings in relief as the

Brigade got the win. Bret Nickle hit a two-run home run for Junction City.

The teams are scheduled to play a doubleheader Thursday night in Rossville. The home opener for the Brigade is at 7 p.m. Saturday at Rathert Field.

IRVING, Texas (AP) – The Big 12 Conference has passed a measure under which schools could face fines or even the loss of future home games for failing to control fans who storm courts or rush fields after games.

Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said Wednesday at the league’s spring meetings that he’s been given broad prerogatives to deal with such issues.

In February, Bowlsby publicly reprimanded Kansas State for failing to prevent Wildcats fans from pouring onto the court after the school’s men’s basketball upset victory over rival and then eighth-ranked Kansas

Bowlsby said then that revisions to policies must guarantee that no such incidents like that should occur in the future.

The Southeastern Conference has been fining its schools since 2004, and plans to substantially increase fines for such violations.

NEW YORK (AP) – Alex Rodriguez hit a three-run homer to break Lou Gehrig’s American League record for RBIs, and the New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 4-2 Wednesday to finish a three-game sweep.

Michael Pineda (6-2) rebounded from consecutive losses and Brian McCann hit a solo shot for the Yankees, who outscored the AL champions 18-4 in their first home sweep of at least three games against Kansas City since August 2007.

Coming into the series, New York had lost six in a row and 10 of 11.

Chris Young (4-1) gave up both Yankees home runs, and the slumping Royals have dropped four straight for the first time since Aug. 28-31. They’ve managed only five runs during the slide.

The 2015 edition of the Junction City Brigade play their first game at Rossville Wednesday night.

Coach Seth Wheeler and the players met Tuesday at Rathert Field.

Wheeler is beginning his first season as head coach but he’s no stranger to the Brigade. He is a former player and assistant coach for them. “I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity. Shane Sieben was awesome and he’s going to be around a lot still. He’ll be my mentor and I’ll bouncing ideas off of him. I’m extremely excited about it.”  Wheeler is also an assistant baseball coach for Butler County Community College.

Sieben is the former head coach for the Brigade who chose to step down from that role. He will still serve in a player personnel role for the program.

Wheeler noted two standouts returning for Junction City from a year ago are pitcher Dalton Schalberg was the Mid-Plains Pitcher of the Year, and Bret Nickle, the MPL MVP last year. Former Junction City Blue Jays Pete Ruiz and Will Ervin are also on the team.

The home opener for the Brigade will be Saturday night against Baldwin City. The first pitch is set for 7 p.m.

NEW YORK (AP) – Mark Teixeira homered and drove in four runs, Adam Warren pitched two-hit ball into the seventh inning and the New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 5-1 Tuesday night to send the AL champions to their first three-game skid this season.

Warren (3-3) was perfect until Mike Moustakas beat out a hit to second baseman Stephen Drew on the outfield grass in right-center with one out in the fourth. The only other hit he allowed was Paulo Orlando’s first major league homer in the sixth.

Lifted after 6 1-3 innings, Warren struck out five without walking a batter in the best of his 12 big league starts.

Teixeira was the only Yankees’ starter without a hit during their 14-1 rout of Kansas City on Monday, which stopped a six-game losing streak. He more than made up as New York won consecutive games for the first time since May 10-11.

The Junction City Blue Jay golf team finished 12th out of 12 teams in the Class 6A State Tournament Tuesday in Hutchinson.

It was the first time in many years Junction City had qualified for state. Coach Tim Hickert was pleased with the way his team performed, despite the 12th place finish. “Shot a 340.  But I thought the kids competed hard and I’m happy with how things went, and I’m just ecstatic that we got to go in the first place.”

Washburn Rural won with a low team score of 296 winning a tiebreaker over Blue Valley North who also finished with a score of 296. Hickert said it came down to the fifth place score. Shawnee Mission East third with a 298 and Manhattan fourth with a score of 300.

Steve Kim led the Blue Jays with a round of 84 on the Carey Park course, which left him tied for 46th place out of 94 golfers  in the individual competition. Logan Roether shot an 84, Shane Lee 87, Madison Roether 89, Tre Reynolds 92, and Chase Stimatze 128.

MANHATTAN, Kan. – As construction continues on schedule for an early August completion of the Vanier Football Complex, K-State Athletics has announced details for the new “Wabash Landing,” a premium group area in the Northwest corner of Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

The two-tier Wabash Landing will be an attractive opportunity for groups of up to 150 guests to watch the Wildcats. Starting at an estimated cost of $10,000 per game, the Wabash Landing will include 100 game tickets and access to a catered concessions buffet with a variety of premium food items, soft drinks, beer and wine (through the end of halftime). Groups will be required to purchase the entire space and will have access to up to 50 additional tickets depending on the size of their party.

“As we close in on three months until the start of football season, we are excited to offer the new Wabash Landing premium area to Wildcat fans,” said Scott Garrett, Associate A.D. for Ticketing and Fan Strategies. “The space is another illustration to our commitment to the Best Fan Experience in the Big 12 and know our fans will find it to be a very entertaining and enjoyable experience.”

Costs for the 2015 season are estimated at $10,000 for games vs. South Dakota and Louisiana Tech, $13,000 for the Baylor, Iowa State, or West Virginia games and $15,000 for the TCU or Oklahoma games.  All purchases include a $2,000 donation to the Ahearn Fund, K-State’s national fund for student-athlete excellence.

The initial reservations for the Wabash Landing will occur in athletic department priority point order for those that join the waiting list byFriday, June 12.  If available, all remaining games will be made available to public groups beginning Wednesday, June 24.  For more information, fans are asked to contact Adam Prough in the K-State Athletics Fan Experience & Sales Office at 785.532.6650.

The Vanier Football Complex project, led by the world-renowned sports design firm Populous in conjunction with the Construction Management team of Mortenson & GE Johnson Construction, remains on track to be completed on time in order for the football program, Sports Medicine and Strength and Conditioning operations to move in prior to fall practice beginning in early August. Other athletic department staff, including the Student-Athlete Enhancement Center (formerly known as the Academic Learning Center), Compliance Services, Athletic Director’s Office, Ahearn Fund and Business Operations will move in prior to the start of fall semester classes.

The 132,000-square foot facility will provide a new Student-Athlete Enhancement Center, an 18,000-square-foot Olympic-quality Strength and Conditioning Center and a new sports medicine and recovery facility with state-of-the-art hydrotherapy and recovery pools. The football program will benefit from new individual position meeting rooms and offices for the coaching staff that will overlook Bill Snyder Family Stadium. The team will also welcome an impressive new football-shaped locker room which will be more than twice the size of the previous space.

The new north seating bowl will include enhanced sightlines, ADA seating, a new Daktronics videoboard and will be connected to the current west-side stadium concourse for access to entrance gates and stadium concessions and restrooms.
As fans may recall, additional plans call for construction of a structure on the northeast side of the new facility – Phase 3B of the Bill Snyder Family Stadium Master Plan – that will connect to the east-side concourse and fully enclose the stadium. This addition will house visiting team locker, training and officials areas, plus additional office space as well as a new videoboard that will mirror the board that has been erected on the northwest side of the stadium.  While a specific timeline has not been determined, design and fundraising work is actively underway with a goal to move forward as soon as it is fiscally responsible to do so.

Kansas State, which returns 44 letterwinners — including 16 starters — from last year’s 9-4 team, begins the 2015 campaign on Saturday, September 5, by hosting South Dakota at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. The other six home games feature five opponents that advanced to bowl games in 2014, including a pair of top-10 teams in TCU (No. 3/3) and Baylor (No. 7/8).

A limited number of single-game tickets for the 2015 season go on sale online only at www.k-statesports.com/tickets on June 22, while fans can purchase by calling the ticket office at 1-800-221-CATS beginning June 24.

– k-statesports.com –

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KENNY LANNOU
Assistant A.D. for Communications | K-State Athletics

NEW YORK (AP) – Jason Vargas is being activated from the 15-day disabled list and is going to start for the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday night against the New York Yankees.

The left-hander hasn’t pitched since May 5 because of a flexor muscle strain. He will fill the rotation spot of Danny Duffy, who was placed on the DL Monday with biceps tendinitis.

Left-hander Brandon Finnegan was optioned to Triple-A Omaha to make room for Vargas. Finnegan was recalled Monday and he pitched three hitless innings in relief of Jeremy Guthrie during the Royals’ 14-1 loss to New York.

Vargas is 3-1 with a 5.26 ERA in five starts this season.