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Tiger baseball holds off Andover Central in first round
SALINA -- Fort Scott High's baseball team had to hold off a rally by Andover Central in the top of the seventh inning here Thursday before picking up a 6-4 victory over the Jaguars in the first round of the Class 4A-Division I State Baseball Tournament at Dean Evans Stadium.
Central, the No. 8 seed, loaded the bases in the top of the seventh as the Jaguars finally figured out Tiger pitcher Mason Knopp (8-0). With one out, Fort Scott head coach Josh Regan brought Carter Young in to face Kierson Stamp. Stamp managed a sacrifice fly that plated Ryan Banwart to bring Central within 2 runs. But Young then induced a high fly ball to center field that Jacob Bradbury hauled in to preserve the win.
Though just a sophomore, Young was Regan's first option for relief pitching regardless of the circumstances.
"Carter was the first option in relief going into the game," Regan said. "I really thought Mason's pitch count was pretty low (91 pitches). He was going to finish that ball game but that was an outstanding lineup. That's got to be one of the best No. 8 seeds in the history of the tournament. And the third and fourth time through, they just started to kind of get on (Knopp) a little bit. That was all that happened. Carter just needed to get two outs and that's exactly what he did."
As for Young, he was excited to get to pitch in that situation.
"It was pretty awesome," Young said. "All I was trying to think about was throwing strikes. I just wanted to get outs."
Young had warmed up in the bullpen before going to the mound, a luxury he had since he had started the game as the Tigers' designated hitter. He said it wasn't anything unusual to change roles during a game like that.
"Not really because I'm used to it," Young said. "I've done it a couple of times this year."
The top-seeded Tigers (20-3) won for the first time in a Class 4A State Tournament (divisions or not) and won a State game for the first time since beating Winfield on this field in the first round of the 2001 Class 5A State Tournament. Fort Scott's program had lost five straight State tourney games since then.
This is also just the second Tiger baseball team to win 20 games in a season. Dave Regan, Josh's father, coached Fort Scott to a 22-3 record in 2001.
The Tigers will have a rematch with Paola, the No. 5 seed, in Friday's 11 a.m. semifinal game. Fort Scott and Paola split a doubleheader at Lions Field on April 28 when the Tigers were ranked No. 3 in the Kansas Association of Baseball Coaches poll and the Panthers were ranked second. Since that loss in game one, Fort Scott has won nine of its last 10 games.
Paola (16-7) defeated No. 4 Topeka Hayden by a score of 8-4 in nine innings in Thursday's second semifinal. Paola, Andover Central and two other teams all had 15-7 records going into State and were seeded by draw. Tonganoxie was seeded sixth and Rose Hill was seeded seventh.
Knopp struck out the side in the top of the first inning. Fort Scott got two runners on with two out in the bottom of the frame after Kaleb DeLaTorre doubled and Knopp drew a walk. But Andover Central pitcher Lucas Milner got Chase Brown to pop up to end the inning.
Central got two on with no one out in the top of the second. An error by Benjamin Labbe on a wild throw from third allowed Stamp to reach. Blake Meier followed with a walk. Austin Clark bunted to move the runners over and then Knopp got a pop-up to shortstop Jake Durossette and a ground out to DeLaTorre at second to end the inning.
Fort Scott teed off on Milner in the bottom of the second. Young started things off with a one-out single, beating out the throw from Meier at shortstop. Then Jacob Payne singled to right-center and Labbe drew a walk. Bradbury followed up with another single, which brought Young home. Durossette stroked a hit to left to plate Payne. Knopp got a 2-out hustle hit, beating out Nicholas Taylor's throw from third which allowed Labbe to score. Brown followed up with a 2-run single, which got both Bradbury and Durosette home to make it 5-0.
The sixth run went up in the third. Young drew a leadoff walk, moved to second on Payne's bunt, reached third on Labbe's hit and scored on Bradbury's single to center.
After that hit, Milner and Johnston traded roles with Johnston taking over on the mound. He had thrown a perfect game against Towanda-Circle in the semifinals of the El Dorado Class 4A-Division I Regional on May 19. The Tigers did not get a hit off him in 3 2/3 innings although he walked 3 batters.
"(Milner) was obviously a competitor," Regan said. "He was keeping the ball down some. We were just up there attacking. He was trying to attack with the fastball and we were driving the fastball. The second guy (Johnston) was a little bit funky and we were out in front against him. We struggled to find the release point."
The Tigers avoided an early Jaguar score with an unusual double play in the top of the fourth. Milner reached on a leadoff error by Labbe, which allowed him to reach second. Stamp flew out to center for the first out and Milner took off for third. He was called out as soon as he touched third by the umpire, who said he had left second too soon. Such appeal plays are automatic in high school baseball if the umpire sees the runner make that mistake and no throw is needed. Knopp then got Meier to pop out to Durossette to end the inning.
The Jaguars first started to get to Knopp in the top of the sixth, although they didn't score. Brock Schaffer drew a leadoff walk. But Knopp struck Banwart out and got Tyler Harris to pop out to DeLaTorre. Milner followed with a single to left and Stamp got a hit as Durossette couldn't get him on a slow roller deep in the hole at short. With the bases loaded, Meier flew out to Alex Fink, who was the center fielder at the time.
Knopp hit Clark with a pitch leading off the seventh. Johnston singled and then Kevin Olney was hit by a pitch, loading the bases. Schaffer brought in the Jaguars' first run with a sacrifice fly. Banwart singled, reloading the bases. Then Harris singled to score Johnston and Milner drew a bases-loaded walk to force Olney home, which brought Central within 6-3 just before Regan made his decison to bring Young on to pitch.
"Even when the collar got tight there at the end, we made the plays we needed to make to win the game and that's a quality win because that was an awfully good baseball team," Regan said.
Fort Scott had 9 hits in all with Bradbury going 2 for 4 with 2 RBI. Brown also drove in 2 runs while the other hits went to Durossette, DeLaTorre, Knopp, Brown, Young, Payne and Labbe.
Central had 6 hits with no Jaguar getting more than one. Central left 7 runners on base while Fort Scott stranded 9.
Motivation for tomorrow, whether the Tigers were going to be facing Paola again or Hayden -- which would have been the first team the teams had met -- won't be an issue for Regan and his assistant coaches.
"The beauty of this team is that I have to pull on the reins," Regan said, "I don't have to use the whip. They get themselves going. My wake-up cal was at 7:15 and everyone was already out eating breakfast. That tells you how ready they were to go today and know (Friday) will be no different."
NOTES: Josh Regan won in his first State tourney game as a head coach as his father, Dave, did in 1991, when the Tigers went to State for the first time. That year, Fort Scott beat Salina South, 5-2, in the first round of 5A State in El Dorado....
We don't usually name players who make errors, but after Labbe made his second throwing error, Regan came out of the dugout and encouraged him to keep making plays saying, "I don't care if you throw it into the trees!"
Staying aggressive and making plays is what Regan wants all his players to do and an error or two is the price sometimes paid for that.
"My job is to remind him to stay aggressive in any situation," Regan said. "He let the ball to take an extra bounce and then he had to rush the throw. If he's aggressive and he's attacking it, he makes the throw. We'll live with errors. It's high-school baseball; it's baseball in general. Those are part of the game. I just want the guys to be freed up and feel like they don't have to be perfect. I want them attacking all the time."
This is Fort Scott's seventh appearance in a State tournament. The Tigers' record improved to 4-9 in State games. Fort Scott has not faced Paola or any other member of the Frontier League in a State game before.
Andover Central beat Fort Scott, 6-3, in the first round of the 2005 State tourney at Salina. That was the Tigers' first State appearance as a Class 4A school.
Although this was Andover Central's 10th appearance a State in the 13-year history of the school, the Jaguars have never won a State title.