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Tiger baseball earns Saturday sweep
3/28/2008
By RANDY GONZALES
rgonzales@dailynews.net
The Tigers had it all in sweeping Saturday's doubleheader.
The Fort Hays State University baseball team got good pitching, clutch hitting and sterling defense in beating Northwest Missouri State University, 8-4 and 9-1, at Larks Park.
The Tigers rebounded from an extra-inning loss in Friday's opener of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association series.
Fort Hays is now 8-15 overall and 5-6 in the MIAA entering today's series finale. Game time is noon at Larks Park.
"It's been a tough first part of the season for us," Fort Hays coach Rick Sabath said. "I thought we showed great character today to get a doubleheader sweep."
Redshirt freshman Chase Schippers led a 14-hit attack in the opener, hitting RBI singles in the second and sixth and belting a two-run homer into a 20-mph wind in the fifth to finish with four RBIs.
"He continues to get better and better," Sabath said of Schippers, who is now hitting .373 with six homers. "He doesn't worry about an at-at to the next at-bat."
The Tigers received a scare in the top of the fourth inning of Game 1, when sophomore starter Donnie Moore was hit in his left leg by a line drive off the bat of Northwest Missouri State senior Jake Bradshaw.
The ball bounced all the way from the pitcher's mound to near the Bearcat dugout, allowing a run to score from second base to tie the game at 3.
Moore was replaced by junior right-hander Brian Thompson, whose struggles in the rotation had put him in the bullpen. Thompson responded by allowing an uneraned run in 3Ôªø1รขÑ3 innings to pick up the win.
An outstanding defensive play by Tiger freshman left fielder Corey Gaudet on the first batter Thompson faced kept it a tie game. With two outs and a runner on first, Bearcat senior Ryan Bledsoe lined a deep drive into the gap in left-center. Gaudet made a headlong dive for the ball, spearing it with his glove just before colliding face-first with the wooden fence. Trainers rushed out to the prone Gaudet, who remained down for about a minute before getting up to jog off the field.
Fort Hays scored three runs in the fifth, highlighted by Schippers' two-run blast, and added two more in the sixth to give Thompson (1-3) his first victory of the season. Senior Joel Eppley (2-2) took the loss for the Bearcats.
Sabath said Thompson pitched well Saturday, as did junior Kevin Large on Friday, even though Large -- who also is in the bullpen after being a starter -- took the loss in the series opener.
"I thought Large pitched well Friday night, and Brian, I thought, had very good command of his changeup," Sabath said.
Sophomore third baseman Tyler Robbins went 3-fo-3, including a double, with three runs scored and an RBI, sophomore Greg Bieker added two hits and an RBI, senior Brent Biggs had two hits and a run scored and junior Brett Becker hit an RBI single.
Schippers slid awkwardly into third base in the sixth, and was replaced in center field in the seventh. He was in the starting lineup for Game 2, moving to left field, where he chased down a ball in the corner in the top of the first.
Sophomore Justin Groff replaced Schippers in left field in the second inning. Sabath said after the doubleheader Schippers had a slight muscle pull in his right calf, and Moore had a bruised knee.
"We think both should be OK," Sabath said.
Groff made the most of his opportunity in Game 2, hitting an RBI double and later scoring in the second inning. He hit a run-scoring single in the third and coaxed a walk in the fourth.
"He did a great job, I'm really happy for him," Sabath said.
Sabath was just as pleased by the performance on the mound in Game 2 by sophomore left-hander Matt Augustine, who pitched his first complete game of the season. Augustine (2-4) allowed one run on five hits, with no walks and six strikeouts.
"Really good stuff, best since Angelo State," Sabath said.
In the season opener on Feb. 1 against Angelo State, Augustine allowed one unearned run on six hits in six innings, with no walks and two strikeouts.
On Saturday, in one stretch through the middle innings, Augustine retired 12 straight batters.
"His command," was the difference, Sabath said. "His fastball and changeup are his two most important pitches.
"When his ball is tailing away from the right-hander, they're swinging over the top of it," Sabath added.
Augustine lost his shutout in the sixth when Bledsoe doubled to open the inning -- ending the Tiger left-hander's streak of a dozen batters retired in a row. Bledsoe later scored on senior Britt Westman's one-out single.
It was too little, too late for Northwest Missouri State (15-9 overall, 5-4 MIAA).
The Tigers scored two runs in the second, three in the third and four in the fourth to make a loser of junior left-hander Jeff Gradel Jr. (2-1).
Redshirt freshman catcher Ryan Majercik had two hits and three runs scored in the second game for the Tigers, and Robbins doubled and drove in two runs.
Redshirt freshman right-hander Matt Patzner is scheduled to make his first start today for Fort Hays. Patzner is 1-0 with a 4.32 earned-run average in six relief appearances. Junior right-hander Bill Disselhoff (1-1, 6.08) is the probable starter for Northwest Missouri State.
Friday
NW Missouri State 4, Fort Hays 3
(10 innings)
Northwest Missouri State tied the game in the of the ninth on a solo homer by sophomore Kreed Kurtz, then won the game in the 10th on Bisselhoff's RBI double.
The Tigers almost sent the fans home happy on Pack the Park night. With a runner on in the bottom of the 10th, Bieker's blast to left field was caught on the warning track to end the game.
Fort Hays scored all of its runs in the second inning on a two-run homer by junior Bret Fortman and a solo shot by Bieker.
Large (1-3) took the loss in relief of junior starter Eric Gilliland, who allowed two runs on four hits in six innings.
Senior Evan Nickell (2-3), the third Bearcat pitcher, got the win.
The announced attendance was 700. The record for Pack the Park night is 1,868 fans, set in 2005.
| 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 |
