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Tiger baseball in key series
4/4/2008
By CONOR NICHOLL
cnicholl@dailynews.net
Season-long aces. Pitchers throwing on three days' rest. Starters turned relievers. Starters turned relievers turned back to starters. Control pitchers. Lefties. Righties.
It really hasn't mattered for the Fort Hays State University baseball team's pitching staff in the last week.
Everyone has pitched superbly and, especially the starting pitching, is the main reason why the Tigers have won a season-high five straight games.
Fort Hays, which started off 4-13, is now 11-15 overall and 8-6 in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, tied for third place with Missouri Southern State University. The top four make the conference tournament, one of the Tigers' season goals.
"When you have the good pitching and defense, you don't feel like you have to score 27,000 runs and you are more relaxed at the plate which helps to lead to better offense," Tiger coach Rick Sabath said Thursday night.
After posting a 7.61 earned-run average in the first 20 contests, the Tigers have a 3.33 mark in the last six games.
Offensively, the team also has gotten a boost from sophomore Tyler Robbins, the reigning MIAA Offensive Player of the Week, and redshirt freshman Chase Schippers (.373 average). Schippers, out with a calf injury, hasn't played in the last five days, but should return today.
The Tigers and the pitching staff have a chance to extend their streak this weekend in a key four-game series against No. 6 Emporia State University (28-3 overall, MIAA-best 14-0), one of the best offenses in the country and on a school record 21-game winning streak.
In the latest NCAA statistics, Emporia State is fourth in the nation in runs scored per game, sixth in batting average and 14th in slugging percentage. Coupled with series against Angelo State (Teas) University and Ouachita Baptist (Ark.) University, this marks the third time this season Fort Hays is playing a team that is ranked in the top 10.
The Tigers went 1-5 against Angelo State and OBU. Last season, they split a four-game series with Emporia.
"We definitely have a lot of respect for Emporia," Sabath said.
The Tigers likely have also started earning more respect, too, especially from the rest of the league. Fort Hays, a young team, started poorly and lost its first game of the Northwest Missouri State University series on "Pack the Park" night last Friday.
That night, junior left-hander Eric Gilliland, the team's best pitcher for most of the season, threw 110 pitches and six strong innings and took a no-decision. The next day, he came to Sabath with a request.
Gilliland wanted to throw on three days' rest, on Tuesday, in a key midweek series against Washburn University. Typically, a college pitcher, especially a top-tier pitcher like Gilliland, receives 4-6 days of rest.
"He has a bounce-back ability," Sabath said of Gilliland's arm.
Gilliland started three days later and threw seven innings of two-run ball and got the win. This weekend, he'll pitch against on three or four days' rest against Emporia State.
Meanwhile, as Gilliland enjoyed his shortened rest over the weekend, the Tigers' staff racked up three straight wins versus Northwest Missouri State to close out the first winning series all season.
Sophomore left-hander Matt Augustine, who ranks 12th in the country in fewest walks per nine innings pitched (1.31) and fifth in the MIAA in ERA (3.48), continued his fine year with seven innings of one-run ball last weekend.
"He is just maturing as a player and as a person," Sabath said. "For the most part, he has given us a really good chance to win every time out. His changeup is very important and if he is throwing that, along with his two-seam fastball, then he will be successful."
Tiger softball
Power vs. speed.
That's Saturday's matchup for the Tiger softball team, led by sophomore catcher Jessika Anastos, and Truman State (Mo.) University.
The Tigers are at home for a noon doubleheader at Tiger Stadium after playing two home games today against University of Central Missouri.
Fort Hays (23-17, 2-4) is third in the MIAA in extra-base hits per game and leads the conference in homers and triples.
Truman State (12-13, 0-4), though, is 12th in the nation in stolen bases per game. The Bulldogs, led by Christen Belcher and Dani Mayer, have stolen 64 bases this season. Belcher, a slap hitter, is batting .415 and has stolen 27 bases in 32 attempts for sixth-best in the country, while Mayer is 20-for-22.
"She's really good at reading, watching the pitcher," Truman coach Erin Brown said of Belcher in Thursday's edition of the Index, the paper that regularly covers Truman State. "If she goes on the changeup, she's there by the time the catcher gets the ball."
The Tigers, though, have been led by the powerful bat of Anastos all year. Even after receiving the Barry Bonds treatment against Southwest Baptist (Mo.) University last weekend (five walks), the sophomore leads the nation in hitting with a .549 average, ranks fourth with a .600 on-base percentage and is second with a 1.027 slugging percentage.
She has already broken the school record for homers (12), total bases (116) and is three doubles and three runs shy of those school marks. In her last home series, Anastos went 14-for-18 (.778 average).
| 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 |
