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Tigers earn split in home opener
2/17/2008
By WILL MANLY
Hays Daily News
Hot bats hammered out hit after dramatic hit at frigid Larks Park Saturday when the Fort Hays State baseball team rallied -- three times -- in the late game for a 13-9 win to manage a doubleheader split against University of Nebraska-Kearney.
Fort Hays trailed 4-1 in the third inning, then took a 6-4 lead in the fourth, then was tied 8-8 in the fifth. Each time Nebraska-Kearney rallied in the second game of the day, Fort Hays rallied right back.
The Lopers won the first game 9-2 in the Tigers' home opener.
And they were leading in the second contest -- behind impressive early pitching by Ryan Sheldon, who allowed just one flare hit and one run in the first three innings of the game.
But after three quiet innings to start the game -- and the first game, when the offense jumped to an early 2-0 lead but didn't score after the first inning -- the Fort Hays offense erupted for five runs and a 6-4 lead in the fourth.
Designated hitter Garrett Brown led off the fourth with a sharp single to right and left fielder Alex Denning followed with a double down the right field line. A slow roller to short by center fielder Chase Schippers drove in one run on a fielder's choice, then catcher Ryan Majercik drove in another run with a bloop single that landed in front of Lopers left fielder Chris Gillaspy.
Fort Hays (2-3) flirted with stranding two runners, however, after right fielder Chris Brown hit a long fly ball that was caught for the second out.
That's when second baseman Tyler Robbins did a healthy amount of damage with a two-out, three-run home run over the right field fence.
"I was just looking for a good fastball to hit, to try to score some runs, hit something solid," Robbins said. "We needed to get some runs, get some momentum back in our favor."
But Nebraska-Kearney (3-2) answered with a splurge of its own -- four runs and an 8-6 advantage -- in the top of the fifth.
In their half of the fifth, the Tigers responded again, this time on a two-out, two-run home run by center fielder Schippers to tie the game at 8.
In the meantime, relief pitcher Matt Patzner rode to the mound -- figuratively speaking -- on a shiny red fire truck and slammed the door on the Lopers' potent offense.
"Their offense has been really good in the early part of the season," Fort hays coach Rick Sabath said. "They swung the bat well here today."
Swung the bat well, that is, until Patzner made his collegiate debut. The first appearance for the freshman from Great Bend was a dandy.
For the first time all night, a Fort Hays pitcher had some answers to the Lopers lineup. Patzner (1-0) pitched 2 1/3 innings, allowing one run, one hit and one walk in a winning effort.
"I was pumped up, my heart was racing 1,000 miles an hour," Patzner said.
After finishing the rally in the fourth inning, Robbins started another in the sixth with a ground-rule double under the left-center field fence. The Tigers took a 9-8 lead when Robbins scored on on a triple by shortstop Brent Biggs. The next two batters walked, loading the bases for Denning, who drilled a single back up the middle to drive in two runs. Fort Hays added two more in the inning on a throwing error by Nebraska-Kearney first baseman Joe Nowaczyk.
Patzner never lost control.
"The catcher called great pitchers," he said. "It was a perfect situation, kept them off balance."
Before Patzner entered the game in the fifth inning of the second game Saturday, five other Fort Hays pitchers had allowed 17 runs over the course of two games.
Matt Augustine (1-1) started the first game and allowed five runs in four innings. Two relievers gave up four more runs in three innings. Brian Thompson started the second game, allowing six runs in 4 1/3 innings; Kevin Large allowed two more runs in a third of an inning.
"Both had a little problem trying to locate, especially keeping the ball down in the zone," Sabath said.
After the Tigers' five-run burst in the fourth inning of the second game, they had almost no trouble adding to their score. But before that, they'd only scored three runs in 10 innings -- and they owed those to shoddy defense and a few walks from Nebraska-Kearney.
"It's one of those baseball things," Robbins said. "I think we settled down a little bit, stopped trying to do too much personally, and let each other carry the team instead of one person trying to carry the team."
"We were just a little sluggish, hadn't played in awhile and were just trying to do too much offensively," Sabath said of the team's early offensive woes.
"I think one of the keys is, we just started getting the barrel on the baseball as opposed to (trying to hit) three-run home runs with nobody on base."
The Larks Park outfield grass more closely resembled the yellow-brown Carhart coats worn by the fans than it did the uber-green artificial turf on the infield.
And it didn't feel quite like baseball season yet, with highs in the low 40s and exhalations clearly visible in the crisp air. The first game featured five errors between the teams.
"It's tough conditions. It's tough to hold onto the baseball. It was sloppy," Sabath said. "We're young and we're gonna have some incosistencies early on."
Fort Hays and Nebraska-Kearney are scheduled to play a noon doubleheader today at Larks Park.
Will Manly is a reporter for The Hays Daily News and The Stir. He can be reached at (785) 628-1081, Ext. 139, or by e-mail at
will@thestironline.com.
| 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 |
