Lawrence Raiders second baseman Travis Sanders, right, lunges for a wide throw on a stolen-base attempt in the first game of a Legion baseball doubleheader with the K.C. Barnstormers. The Raiders lost the opener, 13-8, but won the nightcap, 9-8, Wednesday at Free State High.

At times this spring, Hunter Scheib was so frustrated with his left-handed hitting that he abandoned that side of the plate altogether.

“I struggled,” said Scheib, Free State High’s switch-hitting shortstop. “But the summer is a whole new season.”

Scheib, batting left-handed, slammed a game-tying triple, then scored the winning run on a wild pitch as the Raiders edged the K.C. Barnstormers, 9-8, in the senior Legion baseball team’s opening doubleheader Wednesday night at the FSHS field.

The Barnstormers won the opener, 13-8.

Going into the do-or-die bottom of the seventh, the Raiders were trailing, 8-6, but put the tying runs on base when Travis Sanders walked and Jordan Guntert was hit by a pitch.

That brought Scheib to the plate, and he unloaded a towering drive into the cavernous right-center-field power alley at the Firebirds’ facility.

“I thought it was out,” first-year Raiders’ coach Shaun Edmondson said, “but the crosswind, I think, knocked it down.”

As it was, Scheib had no difficulty motoring all the way to third base after he had forged an 8-8 deadlock. Minutes later, with Ben Wilson at the plate and with two outs, Scheib scored the game-winner on an errant pitch.

Scheib’s clutch hit enabled right-hander Alex Hardman, also a Free State High product, to pick up the win.

“It was nice Hunter had that big hit,” Hardman said. “He had knee surgery last year and struggled this spring. Now he’s hitting like he did last summer.”

Hardman, who was mainly a middle-relief pitcher for the Firebirds in the spring, made his first start since playing for the junior Legion Bandits last summer.

Hardman was hit hard early, but held the Barnstormers scoreless over the last three innings as the Raiders rallied from an 8-3 hole.

“I was hitting the spots better,” Hardman said. “I was hitting the corners. : They were a good-hitting team, too.”

Hardman didn’t mention that he had been ill Tuesday and couldn’t practice.

“We have five games in the next three days,” Edmondson said, “so I asked him if he could pitch, and he said he’d try. I thought he was extremely good. As the game wore on, he got stronger.”

Rallying to win erased the bad taste of the first game in which the Raiders gave 15 hits and, worse, committed six errors. Between games, Edmondson let the players know how he felt.

“I wasn’t yelling,” the Raiders’ coach said. “I was just explaining that it’s not OK for the other team to out-compete us. The ability to come back in the second game shows we’re not afraid to compete.”

Edmondson will find out a lot more about the Raiders this morning. That’s right. This morning. The Raiders were to leave Lawrence at 7:15 a.m. today for 9 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. games that are part of the 11-team Baker Invitational.