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Greyhounds post sweep of division-leading Cowley
Playing at home for just the second time in 16 days, Fort Scott Community College's baseball team played its best against the best, beating Cowley in both ends of a Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division doubleheader, 10-8 and 7-6, at Lions Field Thursday evening.
Cowley remains in front of the division standings with a 20-10 record and a 28-15 overall mark. But the second-place Greyhounds moved closer to the Tigers at 14-8, 25-14.
"We're happy to be home," Fort Scott head coach Chris Moddelmog said. "We've been (mostly) on the road for about three weeks and have not played up to our standards."
Fort Scott was 7-1 in the East after sweeping Labette on March 28 but had gone 5-7 since then, 4-6 on the road.
The fact that Cowley has so many conference games in hand may become a disadvantage as the season goes on. If the Tigers go into a slump, they may not have a chance to right the ship before other teams pass them. And the 'Hounds lead a pack of teams that are within three games of each other in the loss column.
The top eight teams in the 10-team division qualify for the Region VI Tournament in May. The top four teams host one of the bottom four qualifiers from the Jayhawk Conference-Western Division in a best-of-three first-round series. The Greyhounds are almost as close to the eighth seed as they are to the top seed.
And at first, it looked as if Fort Scott was going to move the wrong direction in the standings, spotting Cowley a 5-0 lead in the first two innings. But the 'Hounds rallied for four runs in the bottom of the third.
Kenny Maus led off the inning by beating the throw from shortstop on a slow bouncer to reach base. Dan Huff singled with one out and Clay Cuno hit his seventh home run of the season over the center-field fence.
Trevor Geist singled to left to keep the rally going and Lawson Hipps doubled to center to bring him home.
Cowley put up one in the top of the fifth on Tom O'Gorman's solo home run to extend its lead to 6-4. But Fort Scott responded with five in the bottom half of the inning to chase Tiger starter Lance Hoge.
Huff started the inning with a flair single to short-right field. Cuno drew a walk. Geist singled to left, which brought Huff home. Tyler Cox reached on an error and Cuno scored on the play.
Hipps drew a walk. Tommy Fitzgerald grounded into a fielder's choice, which saw Lawson out at second but also got Geist home, giving the Greyhounds a 7-6 lead.
Hoge's first pitch to Andrew Minnich was a foul liner by inches. That prompted Cowley head coach Dave Burroughs to bring in 2005 Fort Scott High School graduate Drew Graham. Moddelmog countered by sending Brandt Barnes up to pinch hit.
Barnes drew a walk off Graham despite inheriting an 0-1 count. Maus walked with the bases loaded, which brought home Cox. Zach Caldwell's single to center brought Fitzgerald in with the last run of the inning. Graham got out of further trouble by inducing Huff to hit into a double play.
Cowley scored two in the top of the sixth to get within 9-8. But Cox drove in Geist with the insurance run in the bottom of the sixth.
"We got behind 5-0 against probably the best pitcher in the conference and our kids kept battling," Moddelmog said.
Huff and Geist each went three for four for Fort Scott while Hipps was two for two, both hits doubles. Kenny Hitchcock was two for three for Cowley.
Ryan Daniel, 3-1, was the winning pitcher. He allowed six earned runs on eight hits and three walks while striking out four. Eldon Little came on in the sixth, struggled a little but got the side out in order in the seventh and earned his fourth save of the season.
Hoge was chased after 4 1-3 innings, allowing eight earned runs on nine hits and three walks while striking out three. Graham allowed an unearned run on three hits and three walks in the final 1 2-3 innings.
The Greyhounds started off strong in game two, scoring five runs in the first three innings. Two went up in the first, both with two out. Cuno drew a walk and Geist singled to left. Hipps came up and doubled in Cuno with Geist able to score when Cowley misplayed the relay throw from the outfield.
In the second, Fitzgerald led off with a single to right, stole second then advanced to third when the throw went into the outfield. Brandon Lessnau's sacrifice bunt got Fitzgerald home to make it 3-0.
Barnes led off the third with a single to center. He was able to advance all the way third when an errant pickoff throw went into the Greyhounds' bullpen. Hipps doubled with two out to score Brandt. Cox doubled to score Hipps, making it 5-0.
Fort Scott lefty Jeff Rydman, 4-1, allowed only one hit in the first four innings and had retired 11 straight batters before Cowley's offense got going with one out in the fifth. Four hits, an interference call and a sacrifice later, the Tigers were within 5-4. But Rydman finally got a strikeout to end the inning.
The 'Hounds got runs back in the fifth and sixth. Geist doubled to left with one out in the fifth and Hipps brought him in with a single to right. Fitzgerald reached on an error to lead off the sixth and moved up when Maus got on with another error. After a double steal, Caldwell singled home Fitzgerald to make it a 7-4 score.
Rydman hit another rough spot in the seventh. He got the first two batters out but the next three batters took him to 3-2 counts. The first, Darrin Riegert, drew a walk. The next, Mike Dabbs, hit a two-run home run to right-center. The third also drew a walk but Rydman got Ryan McMillan to fly out to center to end the game.
"We've got to give our kids credit, they came today ready to play," Moddelmog said. "We did a lot of things right, did a lot of things wrong. But we just kept battling. That's what we've been trying to teach: just play the game. Don't look at the scoreboard. Play the game the same way all the time and good things will happen.
"We got great pitching from Daniels and Rydman; and Little at the end of the first game. We got some timely hitting. We played good defense and gave ourselves a chance to win."
Rydman walked only two batters and struck out seven as he went the distance on the hill in game two.
Hipps went three for three in this game and finished the day with five hits in five at bats in the doubleheader. Four hits were doubles and he drove in a total of four runs.
"Lawson's been struggling and we challenged him a little bit this week," Moddelmog said. "He showed up to play today and a lot of different guys got hits. They're working on putting the ball in play. If you strike out, they can't make an error. We put the ball in play and good things happen. They're a great team. It's good to step up when you play against good people."
Geist was two for three in the second game for Fort Scott and went five for seven on the day himself. He scored five runs in the two games.
Rain is in the forecast for Saturday, so it's possible that the division doubleheader against Allen County, set for 1 p.m. at Lions Field, may be postponed. The Red Devils are already scheduled to play a conference make-up doubleheader at Kansas City on Sunday but Monday is open for both the 'Hounds and Devils. The Greyhounds travel to last-place Labette Tuesday then host Johnson County Thursday.