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Bad innings hurt Tigers on Friday
3/27/2011
By DARREL PATTILLO
Hays Daily News
Three troublesome innings out of 16 played is 81.2 percent successful, mathematically speaking. The Fort Hays State University baseball team played 13 good innings against the No. 1 team in the nation, but came up short in the runs column Friday at Larks Park, losing a doubleheader to arch-rival Emporia State University, 6-5 and 10-5.
Both teams got started efficiently in Game 1 of the MIAA doubleheader. Senior right-hander Andy Lewton gave up a double in the first inning but got the Hornets to in order in the second.
The Tigers got to work in the bottom of the second. With two out and Kyle Stacken stuck on first, Anthony Salinas doubled down the right-field line, moving Stacken to third. Sheldon Howell then drove in two runs with a triple to the right-center gap. Chris Santoscoy doubled down the right-field line, scoring Howell, then Brandon Hoefler smacked one off the right-field wall to score Santoscoy. After Brett Macari grounded to short, the Tigers had pounded the best team in NCAA Division II with four runs, three earned.
In the Emporia State fourth, the Hornets scored all six of their runs. Joe Kornbrust doubled off the right-center wall to drive in the first two runs. A single brought in Kornbust, and then Dillon Hazlett took the first pitch from Lewton over the wall in left-center for a two-run homer.
ESU coach Bob Fornelli, who was the Tigers' coach from 1997 through 2003, got his squad to buckle down. FHSU threatened in the fifth, sixth, and seventh, but could only score one more run. Lewton (2-3) went the distance.
"Put up some zeros," said Lewton, a former Hays High School standout. "Looked good there for a while, but I made a couple of bad pitches and they took advantage of it. My breaking stuff was working good early and I was able to keep it through the game. I was able to get on hitters with my fastball, but I had just that one bad inning."
FHSU first-year coach Steve Johnson highlighted a common problem for younger teams.
"The only difference between my guys and those guys over there in that dugout, is that they have learned how to win. We're still searching for that. We wasted some at-bats, and when you're trying to learn how to win, every (at-bat) is huge."
The Tigers got the blanketed home crowd warmed up in the second game with a diving catch in left-center by center fielder Brandon Hoefler in the top of the first. Hoefler then beat out an infield single in the Tiger half of the inning, stole second, then went to third on a wild pitch by ESU starter Drew Smith. Hoefler scored on a groundout by Nash Smith.
Senior right-hander David Geiger gave the Tigers 32รขÑ3 scoreless innings before Emporia State (18-1 overall, 14-0 MIAA) took advantage of an error-filled fourth to put up seven runs. Senior Andrew Hawkins came in for Geiger and put a stop to the carnage, but the Hornets had their second big inning of the day. Geiger (3-2) allowed seven hits and seven runs to take the loss.
Emporia State's only other good inning came in the fifth, when the Hornets scored three more runs on some bloop singles and errors. ESU cruised the rest of the game for a 10-5 win.
The bright spot in the second game for Fort Hays (9-11, 6-8) was former Thomas More Prep-Marian standout Chase Schippers, who came in to pinch-hit in the eighth and smacked a three-run blast over the wall in right-center.
The Tigers would add another run in the bottom of the ninth, but that was all they could manage by the end of the chilly evening.
"Our guys are playing hard," Johnson said. "Effort is not a concern. But I told them we have to stay together and keep playing hard and not feel sorry for ourselves."
Fornelli was impressed with his former team.
"Fort Hays is going to be a good team in the long run, I promise you," he said. Stick with them.
"Our guys, we just got something special going. We play hard and we do the right things. If you make a mistake, we're going to make you pay for it," he added.
| Scoreboard | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sport | Date | Opponent | Score |
| 2/18 | SW Baptist | L 66-53 | |
| 12/1 | Oklahoma - Panhandle | L 66-60 (OT) | |