Lawrence’s Drew Noble is tagged out at home in the fifth inning while attempting to score off a hit by Matthew Abel. In top photo, Austin Holladay, center, is greeted after driving in two runs with a sixth-inning home run in the second game against Olathe South in the Legion Zone 3 Tournament. The Raiders lost to the Falcons, 13-1, but then came back with a 9-5 win in the state-qualifying game on Saturday at Ice Field.

Raiders pitcher Tanner Kilmer delivers a pitch Saturday in the Lawrence Raiders' second game against Olathe South in the Legion Zone 3 tournament at Ice Field.

Don’t stick a fork in the Lawrence Raiders yet.

A dominant team in the Kansas AAA Legion baseball tournament for the last six years, the Raiders were a long shot even to make it to state this summer.

But they’re going, thanks a yeoman pitching performance by Tanner Kilmer and a healthy dose of brain blockage.

“That’s the beautiful thing about this game,” said center fielder Matthew Abel, who stroked three hits in Saturday’s zone championship. “You can come right back, and you have to have short-term memory.”

The Raiders erased all aspects of a 13-1 pounding from Olathe South in the first game at Ice Field, then outlasted the Falcons, 9-5, in the state-qualifier behind Kilmer.

“We just dropped that game and moved on,” Kilmer said of the first-game pasting that forced a decisive second contest. “We got something to eat, got going and hit a lot better.”

After producing just five singles in the opener, the Raiders pounded nine hits in the nightcap, including doubles by Chris Parker and Taylor Gentry and a two-run homer by Austin Holladay in the sixth, the Raiders’ lone circuit blow of the three-day tourney.

Meanwhile, the left-handed Kilmer confused the hot-hitting Falcons time and again by mixing speeds on his fastball and slider while throwing an occasional curveball, retiring 10 in a row at one time before tiring in the ninth.

Not bad when you consider Kilmer is the Raiders’ regular first baseman and didn’t pitch that much during the regular season as the No. 4 starter. In fact, his 81?3-inning stint was the longest he ever has been on a mound in one game.

Lawrence led, 9-4, going into the ninth, but the first two O-South batters singled. Wilson Kilmer, the Raiders’ coach and Tanner’s father, allowed his son to face left-handed hitting Mike Schneider — he enticed a groundout — but then replaced Tanner with right-hander Holladay with four straight right-handed hitters coming up.

Tanner wasn’t overjoyed about the hook, but conceded father knows best.

“I was ready to finish it,” he said. “So I was a little upset … but not that much.”

Holladay wasn’t sharp, issuing a walk to load the bases, then walking in a run, but he fanned Kyle Rich with the bases loaded, and Abel ran down a deep drive to center to close the door.

“Matt made a great play,” Holladay said. “That was huge.”

Lawrence went into Saturday as the lone unbeaten in the double-elimination tournament. Olathe South had won twice in the losers bracket Friday and — in theory anyway — figured to be a weary team with a thin pitching staff.

Far from it. The Falcons pounded 15 hits off two Raiders pitchers, including a three-run homer by Rich with two outs in the bottom of the seventh that shortened the scheduled nine-inning game via the 10-run rule. And the Raiders made little noise against right-hander Alex Howard.

During the 45-minute break between games, coach Kilmer took his players out to right field and reinvigorated them by using an America3 analogy. Yes, the yacht that won the America’s Cup and is now on view along the Arkansas River near downtown Wichita.

“There are 16 or 17 crew members on a yacht,” Kilmer said, “and we have 16 players on our team. On a yacht, there are only two things you can’t see — the rudder and the keel. And it’s the keel that keeps the boat from tipping over.”

OK, and the message here was … what?

“That 13-1 loss was pretty rough seas,” Kilmer said with a smile. “I told them we needed to get back on an even keel. We needed to get our keel back in the water.”

And so the Raiders went out and produced timely hits, clutch pitches and played errorless defense.

Now, even though they won state titles from 2003-2006 and finished as runner-up the last two years, the Raiders (16-23) are likely to be the only one of the eight state qualifiers with a losing record.

“Maybe they’ll overlook us, or something,” Kilmer said, “but obviously Lawrence has a reputation going in.”

According to the state Legion baseball Web site, the Raiders will open against Hays approximately 3:30 p.m. Wednesday in Pittsburg.