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Tigers have big day in sweep
4/13/2008
By CONOR NICHOLL
cnicholl@dailynews.net
Tiger coach Rick Sabath punctuated an historic offensive performance by his Fort Hays State University baseball team with two celebratory gestures on Saturday afternoon.
After the Tigers finished their postgame meeting down the third-base line, Sabath talked alone with redshirt sophomore Greg Bieker.
"Enjoy the good days," Sabath said. "He had a great day and I told him to enjoy it."
Then, Sabath called over senior first baseman Dusty Washburn and told the veteran "nice job."
Sabath's words encapsulated an unbelievable performance from Bieker, Washburn and the Tigers. Fort Hays set a school record for runs in a 32-5 victory over Truman State (Mo.) University in Game 1 of a doubleheader at Larks Park. The Tigers completed the sweep with a 16-5 win in the second game.
Bieker, a Hays High graduate, went 5-for-6 with three homers, five runs scored and nine RBIs in the opener, all career-highs and team bests this season. He fell one shy of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association single-game record for homers, hits and RBIs.
Overall, Bieker, who entered the day with two homers, tripled his season total in one afternoon. He finished the doubleheader 6-for-9 with four homers, 11 RBIs and six runs scored. Fort Hays blasted 11 homers against the Bulldogs' steady diet of fastballs, fastballs slower than most pitching staffs the Tigers had faced this year.
"I was seeing the ball pretty well and they kept throwing fastballs," Bieker said. "You figured they would challenge us on some off-speed, but they came with a fastball time after time and it was a good pitch to hit."
The runs, produced off 31 hits and eight homers, broke the record in a 28-0 game in a 1982 win against Colorado School of Mines. Sabath, a former Fort Hays player, University of Kansas assistant and college coach for 11 years, said it was the first time he had ever seen 30 runs in a game.
In Game 2, Washburn, the Tigers' No. 3 hitter and a Thomas More Prep-Marian alum, hit for the cycle for the first time in his career. Washburn finished the day with five hits, seven runs scored, two homers and seven RBIs. Overall, Fort Hays finished with 48 runs and bumped its winning streak to four games.
After starting out 4-13, the Tigers are now 15-19 overall and 12-10 in the MIAA. They are third in the conference behind Emporia State University and University of Central Missouri. The top four squads make the conference tournament.
"We have known all along that this team is capable of doing that (32 runs)," Washburn said of an offense that ranked second in the MIAA in batting average and third in runs scored entering Saturday.
"I think we finally decided as a team that enough is enough and splitting games and playing good and playing bad. We figured we would come together and put it all together. We knew it was possible," Washburn added.
It certainly was against Truman State, a squad that entered the series with a 4-23 record and hadn't won an MIAA series in the last two seasons.
The Bulldogs, underfunded compared to other conference schools, start and pitch multiple true freshmen, rank second to last in the MIAA in ERA (8.18) and last in strikeout rate.
After Truman State scored four in the top of the first, Fort Hays put the first two batters on base in the first inning against Bulldog starter Corey Tomasek.
Then, Washburn, second in the conference in homers, blasted a three-run shot to deep center. Fort Hays finished with nine runs, including homers by Bieker and center fielder Justin Groff.
"Hitting is contagious. When the first couple guys get a hit, it boosts your confidence up for the other guys and it just carries right on through the order," Washburn said.
Bieker, the team's leading hitter with a .402 average, keyed another nine-run inning in the second with a double and a monstrous three-run homer to deep left field. The Tigers' hitting forced Truman State to use three pitches to coax six outs.
The game was eventually delayed for over an hour because of rain and hail, but Bieker continued to hit after the break.
Bieker homered to right-center in the fourth and singled home a run in an eight-run fifth to bump his season average up 20 points and extend his hitting streak to nine games.
His hitting has helped Fort Hays score in double figures in three of its last four contests and reach eight runs in eight of their last 11. Bieker, and most of the team, has stopped chasing pitches down in the zone, especially the off-speed variety.
"(Earlier in the season), they would feed me three sliders down and it would be quick at-bat for me," he said. "It was pretty evident to know what to get me out with. A lot of our guys were struggling kind of with the off-speed pitch. I was pretty bad, but we have been working on recognizing it and seeing it."
After a scoreless third, Fort Hays, helped by wind gusts that occasionally rattled the stadium supports and provided extra carry to every fly ball, scored four more in the fourth and led 22-5.
"When you have conditions like this with the wind blowing out, you just try to hit to the conditions," Bieker said.
The Tigers tallied eight in the fifth and set the record. Brent Biggs, hitting for the second time in the inning, would have broken the school mark on a grand slam that was at least six feet inside the left field foul pole. Instead, the home plate umpire called it foul and Biggs eventually struck out. Alex Denning, though, was hit by a pitch and Bret Konrade singled home two runs to reach 30.
In Game 2, Washburn supported Matt Augustine (3-5) with his first four-hit game of the season. After a first-inning double, Washburn, one of the slower Tigers, delivered his first triple of his collegiate career when he smacked a sinking liner to center. Bulldog center Kenny Swanson tried to make a diving catch, but the ball scooted past him and Washburn finished at third base.
"When I hit it, I thought he was going to catch it at first," he said.
Washburn left no doubt in the fourth when he crushed a mammoth blast to left-center for his 11th homer this season.
| Scoreboard | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sport | Date | Opponent | Score |
| BB | 5/11 | Central Missouri | L 4-2 |
| BB | 5/10 | Missouri Western | W 4-3 |
| BB | 5/09 | Emporia State | L 6-5 |
| BB | 5/04 | Pittsburg State | W 17-5 |
| BB | 5/04 | Pittsburg State | L 4-3 |
| BB | 5/03 | Pittsburg State | L 15-7 |
| BB | 5/03 | Pittsburg State | L 5-4 |
| SB | 5/02 | Central Missouri | L 3-1 |
| SB | 5/02 | Missouri Western | W 3-2 |
| SB | 5/01 | Pittsburg State | W 6-0 |
