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Greyhounds take game one from Colby
COLBY — Three home runs helped Fort Scott Community College’s baseball team take game one of a best-of-three Region VI Tournament first-round playoff series, 5-2, over Colby here Friday afternoon.
Brandon Krennrich and Danny Crews each hit solo homers and Quinn Waterbury gave the Greyhounds (36-21), fifth-place finishers in the Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division, breathing room with a 2-run shot in the top of the ninth.
Krennrich led off the top of the second with a single, moved to third on Harrison Whitworth’s line drive to right and scored with 2 out on a Sean Moore single to left.
Colby tied it in the bottom of the inning. Sam Poliquin led off with a double, moved to third on an error and then scored on another error.
The Trojans (27-24), who finished fourth in the Western Division, took their only lead in the third when Brian Granton was hit by a Justin O’Laughlin pitch leading off the inning, moved to second when Christian Roduner was also hit by a pitch and scored on Polquin’s single to left.
Krennrich’s homer, his ninth of the season, led off the fourth inning and tied the score at 2-2. Crews’ dinger, his 12th, led off the sixth and put Fort Scott in front for good.
O’Laughlin (7-5), who broke a personal four-game losing streak, made it through 7 1/3 innings, allowing one earned run on 6 hits. He didn’t walk anyone and struck out 9. Kobie Schmitt came on with one out in the bottom of the eighth but the first batter he faced, Cole MacLaren, reached on an error. Schmitt got Harrison Stevens to strike out swinging and Andy Leader to ground out to Moore at third base to end the inning.
Andrew Morrow walked leading off the top of the ninth. Whitworth bunted him over to second before Waterbury came up and crushed his 12th homer of the season to center field.
Schmitt got the side out in order in the bottom of the ninth as he recorded his 14th save of the season. He is now tied for the NJCAA lead in saves with Taylor Floyd of Grayson, Texas.
Krennrich was the only Greyhound with more than one hit, going 2 for 3. Poliquin was 4 for 4 for Colby.
Colby starting pitcher Nick Vickers (4-5) lost despite striking out 13 Greyhounds in 7 2/3 innings. He allowed 5 hits and 2 walks.
Fort Scott was the only road team to win on the first day of Region VI post-season play.
Game two begins here today at 3 p.m. If Colby wins, the third game will be played at 1 p.m. Sunday with a trip to the bracket play at Wichita on the line.
| (5E) Fort Scott | AB | R | H | BI |
| M.Sloan, cf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Baker, 2b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Crews, ss | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Krennrich, c | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Morrow, lf | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Whitworth, dh | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Waterbury, 1b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Moore, 3b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Williams, rf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| TOTALS | 33 | 5 | 7 | 5 |
| (4W) Colby | AB | R | H | BI |
| Granton, 3b | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Humringhouse, ss | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| G.Kirkwood, cf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Roduner, 1b | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Poliquin, dh | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| MacLaren, c | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Stevens, lf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Leader, rf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| D.Kirkwood, 2b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTALS | 35 | 2 | 6 | 1 |
Fort Scott. 010 101 002 — 5 7 3
Colby......... 011 000 000 — 2 6 0
E — Krennrich, Crews, M.Sloan.
LOB — Fort Scott 6, Colby 9. 2B — Kirkwood, Poliquin. HR — Krennrich (9, 4th inn., none on, none out), Crews (12, 6th inn., none on, none out), Waterbury (12, 9th inn., 1 on, 1 out). SB — McLaren (3), Poliquin (4). S — Whitworth.
| Fort Scott | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| O’Laughlin (W. 7-5) | 7 1/3 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 9 |
| Schmitt (Sv. 13) | 1 2/3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Colby | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Vickers (L. 4-5) | 7 2/3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 13 |
| Amador | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Leban | 1/3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
HBP — Granton (by O’Laughlin), Roduner 2 (by O’Laughlin, 2).