FSHS baseball finally plays at home

Fort Scott High School's baseball team finally got to play at home as Thursday night the Tigers hosted Field Kindley High School of Coffeyville.

Fort Scott swept the Southeast Kansas League doubleheader from Coffeyville by scores of 5-3 and 10-1 at Ty Cullor Field.

"It was just nice to finally play at home!" Fort Scott head coach Josh Regan said. "We put together our best doubleheader of the season, by far, against a very good ballclub."

The Golden Tornado came into the twinbill as the leader in the league. They left in fourth place

Labette County took over the lead at 5-1 (10-4 overall) while Fort Scott is 3-1, 7-4. Chanute is 6-2, 7-6, and Coffeyville is 5-3, 7-3. Fort Scott hosts last-place Parsons (0-6, 1-11) in a make-up doubleheader Tuesday before going to Labette County for a make-up twinbill Wednesday. LCHS doesn't play until Wednesday.

Fort Scott had yet to play at home game because doubleheaders against Louisburg and Paola were switched to the opponent's field. Also, the annual home-and-home single games against Nevada were swapped so that the first one was played in Nevada instead. Ironically, Friday's game against Nevada -- the other side of the home-and-home swap -- was rained out (see related story at the top of this page).

If that game with Nevada can't be rescheduled, then Tuesday's home games with Parsons will be the last ones of the regular season. And that means the Tigers will have just four home games this year. But if the other games hadn't been swapped, the schedule backlog could have been much worse. Because of make-ups, the Tigers will play Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday of next week -- six games in four days.

As for Thursday's games, Regan praised his pitchers, Mason Knopp and Ryan Pickers, each of whom hurled complete games.

"Coffeyville is extremely solid, top to bottom," Regan said. "Their lineup is dangerous and I thought Mason and Ryan kept them off-balance all night. We played outstanding defense, led by Jake Durossette at shortstop, and we swung the bats well."

Knopp allowed 8 hits and 2 walks while striking out 5 in the opener. Offensively, the Tigers had only 4 hits -- 2 by Durossette, and 1 each by Chase Brown and Kaleb DeLaTorre -- but took advantage of 3 walks and 2 hit batters as they scored all 5 runs in the third inning.

Pickert allowed 5 hits but didn't walk anyone while striking out 5 in the second game. The offense cranked out 12 hits, with Knopp going 3 for 4 and DeLaTorre, Durossette and Benjamin Labbe each getting 2 hits.

"In game two our offense exploded and we were able to hit a lot of balls hard," Regan said. "Chase Brown and Kaleb DeLaTorre were especially locked in at the plate."

Thursday was the first time the Tigers had played in nearly two weeks. That was when the April 12 doubleheader was switched to Paola. This began a stretch of what will be eight games in nine days, even with Friday's rain-out.

"I can feel our confidence building," Regan said. "It seems like we are getting past that mindset that we are young and moving more toward the mindset that we are good. Some guys are starting to come into their own. If the weather would just hold and we could get some games in and get in a rhythm, I believe we are poised to go on a tear."

NOTES -- The Tigers are now listed with a 7-4 record because Girard has conceded the second game of the May 28 game at Chanute, which was suspended with the Tigers leading 8-5 in the fourth due to darkness -- there are no lights at Neosho County Community College's field where the games were played. The schools were unable to find a good open date to finish the game....

Game One

Fort Scott........... 005 000 x -- 5 4 0

WP -- Knopp (1-2). LP -- Grossi.

HR -- None.

Game Two

Fort Scott.......... 040 123 x -- 10 12 0

WP -- Pickert (3-0). LP -- Redington.

HR -- None.