The Onaga High School baseball team went on the road last Friday night for its season opener against Wabaunsee. The Buffaloes brought back five starters from the 2022 team that earned the #2 seed in the postseason regional tournament, before losing to St. Marys in the semifinal game. The Chargers were coming off of a sweep of Burlingame in their season opener, entering the game with a 2-0 record.
Senior Colby Simkins, a 2nd Team All-State performer as a junior, started on the mound for Onaga while Wabaunsee started senior Bryton Reves, an Honorable Mention All-Stater last season himself. The first two innings were scoreless for both teams before Onaga got things rolling in the 3rd. Sophomore Jackson Kolterman was hit by a Reves pitch, then stole second on the next pitch. Senior Zac Fisher then drove him in. Simkins would then reach on an error, driving in Fisher. Later in the inning, sophomore L.J. Koelzer, who had as good of a first night as a starter as anyone in Onaga’s brief baseball history, would drive a ball to right field to score Simkins and give the Buffaloes a 3-0 lead.
That got the ball rolling for Onaga, who put up five runs over the next three innings. Then, a 12-run seventh inning led Onaga to a 20-2 season-opening victory, the second most runs the Buffaloes have ever put up in a single game. The 12 runs are the most in a single inning in school history as well. Big plays included hits by Jackson Kolterman, Jeramia Dorsey, and Colby Simkins, walks by L.J. Koelzer and Colby Fordham, a single by Zac Fisher, and a sacrifice fly by Simkins.
Simkins got the win for Onaga, lasting four innings thanks to a pitch count limit that would keep him available for the team’s next game, allowing three hits and one run while striking out six. Hunter Lamond would pitch the next two and two thirds innings for Onaga before being pulled in the 7th due to a pitch count limit of his own, then Rayce Fisher came in to close out the last batter of the game with just one pitch to strike him out.
Reves allowed five hits and six runs over four and a third innings for the Chargers, striking out nine. Hayden Willburn, Jesse Eubanks, and Cole Frank each contributed in relief for Wabaunsee.
Onaga racked up ten hits on the day. Fisher and Koelzer each managed three hits to lead the Buffaloes, and Onaga’s emphasis on being aggressive on the base paths seemed to pay off as the team stole 17 bases during the game. Fisher set the single game school record with 7 stolen bases, Simkins and Kolterman each stole 4, while sophomore Dylan Magnett and senior Colby Fordham each stole another.
After the blowout first game took nearly three hours, the Buffaloes went to work in the second game looking to get up big early, and they did just that. In the first inning Onaga tied the school record for runs in one frame, a record they had just set in the last inning of game one, scoring 12 runs to open up the contest. Fisher, Simkins, juniors Hunter Lamond and Rayce Fisher, along with Fordham and Magnett, each drove in runs during the inning.
Zac Fisher also got the start for the Buffaloes on the mound in the second game and ended up pitching the entire game, which only lasted four innings. He threw a shutout for Onaga as the senior righty lasted four innings, allowing two hits and zero runs while striking out five and walking one. The efficiency he displayed all of last year has apparently carried over to 2023 as he finished the four innings in just 48 pitches.
Larson Parry was on the pitcher's mound for Wabaunsee to start the game. He allowed six hits and 12 runs over two innings, striking out five. Keller and Hayden Willburn entered the game as relief, throwing one inning each.
Koelzer continued his hot streak as he recorded two hits and scored three runs, while Simkins also recorded two hits and scored four. The Buffaloes stole six bases in the contest and committed just one error on defense.
Onaga is now 2-0 on the season and played their second double-header of the season on Tuesday when it went to Wathena to play Riverside/Doniphan West, who are in the second year of a cooperative. The JV team will play its first games of the season this Friday at Wamego at 4:30pm, while the varsity is back in action next Thursday in its home opener against Blue Valley. That game’s first pitch will also be at 4:30pm.
You can check out the baseball team's roster, look at stats, follow results, and much more on the team's page on the school website, https://www.usd322.org/page/baseball.