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Tigers drop two key games to Pittsburg State at home, finish series Sunday

5/3/2008

By RANDY GONZALES

rgonzales@dailynews.net

The Fort Hays State University baseball team had already clinched a berth in the conference's postseason tournament when it took the field Saturday for a Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association doubleheader against Pittsburg State University.

The Tigers proceeded to play like anything but a postseason club, letting a late lead slip away in the opener to lose 5-4, then getting blasted in the nightcap, 15-7, at Larks Park.

"Very tough day," said Tiger coach Rick Sabath, who held a long team meeting after the two losses. "We talked about before the series we couldn't be overconfident."

Fort Hays and Pittsburg State will play a noon doubleheader today at Larks Park to end the regular season. If the Tigers earn the No. 3 seed in this week's MIAA tourney, they will avoid playing juggernaut Emporia State University in the first round.

As well, with two wins today the Tigers would climb back over the .500 mark heading into the tourney. Fort Hays has not finished a season under .500 since 1991, when the Tigers went 9-33 under Tom Mahon.

Also Saturday, the Tigers also dropped three games under .500 in games against NCAA Div. II teams, which hurts them in consideration for making the regional.

Fort Hays led 4-2 going into the Gorillas' last at-bat in Game 1, but Pittsburg State rallied for three runs to take the lead. Junior starter Brian Thompson (5-4) left the game after giving up an RBI single to cut the lead to one run.

Junior reliever Garrett Huck entered with two runners on and one out and gave up an RBI single to tie the game and a run-scoring double by senior Brett Hothan to give the visitors the lead.

Senior Brad Bartling pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh to save the game for Gorilla senior starter Brandon Boyer.

Fort Hays was held to four hits in the game, but three of them were homers to set a new single-season record for home runs.

Freshman catcher Ryan Majercik hit a two-run blast in the first inning, sophomore Greg Bieker hit a solo shot in the fourth to tie the mark of 76 hit by the 2003 team, and junior Brett Becker hit another solo homer in the fifth for the team's 77th of the year.

But the Tigers couldn't get anything else going against Boyer (3-3), who allowed four hits in six innings, with four walks and five strikeouts.

"We didn't swing the bat well today, either," Sabath said. "I don't have an explanation for it."

The Tigers tried to rid the hex on their bats by throwing them out of the dugout and stomping on them before they came to bat in the second inning of Game 2, and it seemed to work, at least for awhile.

Fort Hays (26-27 overall, 20-14 MIAA) scored five runs in the second off Gorilla junior starter Tim Brown.

Highlighting the inning was freshman Corey Gaudet's three-run triple. The Tigers added an RBI single by senior Brent Biggs and Becker's run-scoring double to take a 5-2 lead.

Pittsburg State (21-27, 15-19) got a run in the third and took the lead on Hothan's three-run homer in the top of the fourth to knock out Tiger junior Eric Gilliland, who allowed six runs in 3 2/3 innings.

Fort Hays tied it again in the home half of the inning. Gaudet hit a leadoff triple and scored on Biggs' single.

Pittsburg State's leadoff man, junior Taylor House, homered in the sixth, but Fort Hays answered with Bieker's solo shot in the seventh to make it 7-7.

The Gorillas scored seven runs in the eighth off four Tiger pitchers to take a 14-7 lead.

Sophomore Pat Huddleston (1-2) gave up a pair of infield singles and a single to shallow center field to the first three batters in the inning to load the bases for Nick Giuliani, who cleared the sacks with a three-run double down the right-field line to make it 10-7. Pittsburg State added four more runs in the inning and tacked on another in the ninth.

"Up and down our pitching staff today, and overall as a team, we were out of synch," Sabath said.

Brown (4-4) worked the first seven innings, giving up seven runs, with freshman Ryan Bartling finishing up.

Tiger junior first baseman Dusty Washburn went 0-for-7 in the two games to see his hitting streak end at 23 games.

Sophomore left-hander Matt Augustine (4-6, 5.48 ERA) is the probable starter for Game 1 today, with senior right-hander James Simpson (2-0, 5.06) scheduled to go in the second game on Senior Day.

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