Whether it was at the plate or in the field, the Blue Valley Northwest Huskies spent most of Wednesday’s American Legion zone tournament game as spectators to the Lawrence Raiders.

The Raiders walked off the field 13-2 victors in seven innings at Free State High.

A two-run home run by Kyle Cross in the bottom of the seventh pushed the Raiders past the 10-run rule to end it early.

“I wasn’t seeing any pitches in the zone and then got a fastball in, and I just capitalized,” Cross said.

The home run by Cross capped a night full of extra-base hits. Five of Lawrence’s nine hits went for extra bases. Scott Heitshusen and Patrick Johnson each slapped a gapper for a double.

“There were numerous balls that were absolutely crushed,” Raiders coach Troy Wingert said. “That’s one thing we’ve been doing real well lately, is a lot of hard outs. And our extra-base hits are hard balls. We’re finding the center of the baseball, and we’re having level swings.”

Travis Ice also picked up a double to go with his triple that plated Cross, Johnson and Tyler Knight in the second inning.

Lawrence pitcher Travis Blankenship throws against Blue Valley Northwest. The Raiders opened their zone tournament with a 13-2 victory Wednesday at Free State High.

“I was just seeing the ball pretty good tonight,” said Ice, who also reached base on a walk and by being hit by a pitch. “And things were definitely feeling pretty good.”

Travis Blankenship recorded eight strikeouts – five of which caught a Huskies batter looking – and issued two bases on balls.

“I was just trying to mix it up on them and trying to get the slider to break hard at the end,” Blankenship said. “And was also able to work the corners on them.”

While Blankenship was hitting his marks, the Huskies were having difficulty doing the same. They gave up 15 walks.

“When we’ve got : a team that is issuing a lot of walks to us, we have to be able to utilize those walks, and early in the game we did that with the four-spot in the second and the third innings,” Wingert said. “When you’ve got a guy up there that’s wild and not throwing a lot of strikes, we have to be able to get a hit here and there, and it’s just got to be done.”

Things didn’t go well for the Raiders early in the field, however, as they recorded three consecutive errors in the first inning and allowed the two Blue Valley runs to score with two outs.

Lawrence's Kyle Cross tags out Blue Valley Northwest's Nick Elster (2). The Raiders rolled, 13-2, Wednesday at Free State High.

“They came out, they looked a little nervous, but we got them out of the way early,” the Raiders’ skipper said. “I’m confident that we got all those errors out of the way, and, you know, we’re going to be sensational for the rest of the tournament.”

The Raiders will face Lansing – winners over Leavenworth on Tuesday – today in their second game of the tournament at Free State High. Game time is 7:45 p.m.

“I’m not really sure how we match up with Lansing,” Wingert said. “I know we’re throwing Scott Heitshusen, who : he’s kind of a power arm. He’s going to go to the mound, and he’s going to give us a great performance, and we’ll just see what happens.”.