'Hounds fight back in first-round series

COLBY -- Fort Scott Community College's baseball team defeated Colby by the football-like score of 21-13 in the third game of a Region VI Tournament best-of-three opening-round series here Sunday.

Fort Scott, the sixth seed from the east side of the bracket, lost the first game on Saturday by a 19-9 score but came back later in the day to tie the series with a 5-4 victory in 11 innings.

The Greyhounds will most likely play at Friday at 3 p.m. at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in Wichita as bracket play gets underway, although drawing either a noon or a 6 p.m. start time is also possible. The tournament from that point on becomes double elimination.

A look at the bracket online at www.kjccc.org reveals that the first round winners are re-seeded for the quarterfinals.

If no other east teams win the remaining series, it appears that the Greyhounds would fill the "East No. 3" position on the bracket and face the No. 2 west seed. If other east teams win, the bracket may be revised.

Fort Scott improved to 33-23 on the season. It is the first time the Greyhounds have qualified for the double-elimination bracket since Region VI switched to this format in 2005. FSCC did not qualify for the playoffs that year and lost to Seward County two games to one in a first-round series last year despite having home-field advantage.

Ironically, last year, it was Fort Scott that won game one only to see the visitor take the next two and advance.

Colby had a seven-run third in game one but the Greyhounds came back with a seven-run fourth to get back within 10-9.

The Trojans, also 33-23, put up two in the fourth, one in the fifth and then added eight in the seventh to force the run rule to kick in (all tournament games are nine innings).

Fort Scott had 11 hits with Brandt Barnes and Clay Cuno each getting two. Barnes and Trevor Geist each drove in two runs.

The 'Hounds led game two 3-1 going into the bottom of the seventh innning before Colby tied it. Both teams scored a run in the eighth.

Cuno and Kenny Maus each had two hits for the Greyhounds. Zach Caldwell scored twice.

Eldon Little, 5-4, was the winning pitcher. The left-hander, who usually closes the first game of doubleheaders, had one of his longest stints of the season as he pitched the final 3 1/3 innings. He allowed five walks but only one hit and struck out five.

Game three on Sunday saw 34 combined runs on a total of 35 hits.

The 'Hounds put up five in the first and three in the second. Colby scored five in the second and tied it with three in the fourth.

The insane scoring pace continued as Fort Scott put up four in the sixth to go ahead 12-8. But Colby scored three in the bottom of that inning.

The 'Hounds gave themselves some distance when they scored seven times in the seventh. Colby's two runs in the bottom of the inning brought the Trojans back within 19-13.

Barnes was three for five for Fort Scott, belting his fourth home run of the season as he drive in five runs. Maus was three for six with a home run. Lawson Hipps was three for six, driving in two runs.

Caldwell went three for five with two RBI. Geist was two for four, Tommy Fitzgerald two for five and Tyler Cox two for seven.

NOTES -- Two series have yet to be completed. The Hutchinson-Neosho County series didn't start until Sunday due to wet conditions at Chanute's Hudson Field. That series is tied at 1-1 but it would be highly surprising to see the third game played today.

The other series is the Dodge City-Kansas City series, also tied at 1-1. Game three was suspended Sunday night in the fifth inning due to rain. Dodge City was leading 6-2 in the fifth inning....

That game might be played as only widely-scattered areas of rain were visible on Kansas City radar this morning....

Box Scores

Game One

Fort Scott.......... 200 700 0 xx -- 9 11 2

Colby……….... 107 210 8xx -- 19 20 0

Two outs when run rule went into effect

E -- Verhulst, Huff.

2B --Barnes, Cuno Geist, MacDonald 2, Farrell 2. Peterson 2, Chatwood, Whitford. 3B -- Gering. SB -- Barnes, Caldwell, Chatwood. CS -- Beach.

HBP -- Maus (by Schmitt), Gordon 2 (by Verhulst, by Lansford)

WP -- Rydman. PB -- MacDonald.

Game Two

Fort Scott.......... 000 012 010 01 -- 5 9 2

Colby……….... 001 000 210 00 -- 4 11 1

E -- Lessnau 2, Turner.

2B -- Geits, Beach, Gering. SB -- Caldwell 2, Maus, Barnes, MacDonald. CS -- Cuno, Gordon, MacDonald.

HBP -- MacDonald (by Huff). WP -- Turner, Jiggits.

Game Three

Fort Scott.......... 530 004 711 -- 21 20 2

Colby……….... 050 303 200 -- 13 15 2

E -- Fitzgerald, Lessnau, Caggiano, Blankenship.

2B -- Geist, Cuno, T.Cox, Caggiano, MacDonald. 3B -- T.Cox, Beach. HR -- Maus (2), Barnes (4), Gordon, Dunsmore. SB -- Cuno 2, T.Cox, Chatwood, MacDonald. CS -- Dunsmore.

HBP -- Barnes (by Huck). WP -- April.