'Hounds climb farther away from division cellar

HIGHLAND -- Fort Scott Community College's baseball team is now five games clear of playoff elimination with eight games remaining in the regular season after sweeping Highland in a Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division doubleheader here Saturday.

The Greyhounds took game one in eight innings, 5-4, and won the second game, 9-6.

Fort Scott, which was 4-16 in division play at the beginning of the month, has won seven of its last eight and is almost back at the .500 mark overall. The Greyhounds are in seventh place in the East at 11-17 and are 21-22 overall.

Highland fell to 7-21, 14-30. The Scotties are in eighth place after losing four games to the 'Hounds in three days and are just one game ahead of both Labette and Allen, which are tied for ninth place.

Only the top eight teams in each division make the playoffs. Fort Scott has four games coming up this week against Allen (6-22, 12-28) and took three of four from Labette (6-22, 12-25) last weekend.

Highland scored first in Saturday's opener, posting 2 runs in the bottom of the third. Fort Scott tied it in the fourth when Zach Taylor's single to center brought in Josh Griffith and Parker O'Dell.

Kaden Schaffer hit a solo home run leading off the top of the seventh. Later in the inning, Lance Barkley scored on a groundout to make it 4-2. Highland tied it in the bottom of the inning on a 2-run homer by Justin Paul.

Kolby Greenslade reached base for the Greyhounds in the top of the eighth, moved up on a sacrifice bunt and scored on Shaffer's single.

Matt Peterson hit a batter with one out in the top of the seventh but got a fly-out to left and struck out the final batter he faced for his third save of the season. Cody Tolbert (2-2) got the win after allowing 3 earned runs on 6 hits and no walks in the first 7 innings. He struck out 7.

Shaffer was 2 for 5 for the 'Hounds.

The second game went back and fourth in the middle innings. Fort Scott lead 2-0 after its first two turns. Shaffer scored on Barkley's sacrifice following his lead-off double in the first. Greenslade scored on an error in the second.

Highland scored once in the second. Fort Scott put up two in its half of the fourth when Zach Taylor and O'Dell both scored on an error. The Scotties scored 3 in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game at 4-4.

Fort Scott scored 3 in the fifth. Griffith led off with a single and came on on O'Dell's one-out home run. Greenslade followed that with a single. Then Taylor singled. After a double steal, Greenslade scored on Doug Jenkins' sacrifice to make it 7-4.

Highland scored once in the bottom of the fifth. Fort Scott got that back in the sixth when Austin Oakes scored on an error.

Schaffer scored on Jake Harvey's single in the top of the seventh to make it 9-5. Highland scored once in the bottom of the inning. But Barkley struck out Jeremy Wagner for the second out and induced a groundout to end the game.

Taylor went 3 for 4 to lead the 'Hounds at the plate. Harvey, Griffith, O'Dell and Greenslade each had 2 hits.

John Lynch (3-5) earned the win with 2 innings of 2-hit relief in which he allowed an unearned run. Barkley picked up his second save of the season by going the final 2 innings, allowing 4 hits and one walk while striking out 2.

Fort Scott's sweep also allowed the Greyhounds to shut out Highland in the season series. The 'Hounds took both games on Thursday at Lions Field, 17-6 and 5-3. It's Fort Scott's first sweep of a conference season series since winning all four from Independence April 6 and 7 of last season. Since then, the 'Hounds had lost at least one game in nine consecutive division series.

Catching up with sixth-place Independence (15-13, 21-19) is within reach as the Pirates will be facing third-place Cowley (19-9, 27-13) this week. Labette will be taking on co-leader Johnson County (21-7, 32-11) this week while Highland is scheduled to play fifth-place Kansas City.

In the final week of regular-season play April 24 and 26, Fort Scott will be playing co-leader Neosho County, Independence will take on rival Coffeyville, Highland is paired with Johnson County, Allen plays Kansas City and Labette will face Cowley.

Fort Scott faces Allen at Lions Field Thursday afternoon with the first game beginning at 1 p.m. The teams will face each other again at Iola Saturday.

NOTES/B> -- A doubleheader scheduled for today at the Ottawa University junior varsity was rescheduled for April 22 due to the weather....