No. 1 Tigers avenge season-opening loss

NEVADA -- Fort Scott High School's baseball team, ranked No. 1 in Class 4A-Division I by the Kansas Association of Baseball Coaches, avenged one of their two season losses here Tuesday by beating Nevada, 7-2.

Nevada won the season opener between the two schools 11-1 at Lions Field on March 31, but Nevada head coach Danny Penn knew his team wasn't going to have such an easy day of it a second time.

"We talked immediately after that first game how that was not the Fort Scott team that we were expecting to play, there at the end of March," Penn told Eric Wade of the Nevada Daily Mail. "And their record and their recent run of good play indicates that as well."

Fort Scott, which improved to 16-2, broke Nevada's 12-game winning streak and handed it its first home loss of the season.

"This was our biggest win of the season up to this point," Fort Scott head coach Josh Regan said. "Nevada is a great team. They will make serious noise in the Missouri playoffs."

Mason Knopp (5-0) allowed just a pair of sixth-inning runs, one of those unearned, as he pitched a complete game for the Tigers. He allowed 7 hits and 1 walk while striking out 9.

"Mason was incredible again on the bump for us," Regan said. "They couldn't get much of anything going offensively until it was too late."

Grant Wolfe took the loss for Nevada (14-3), allowing 6 runs on 9 hits and one walk in 4 1/3 innings.

Jake Bradbury led off the game with a hit for the Tigers and went on to score the first run on a groundout. Fort Scott added 2 runs in the top of the third as Jake Durossette led off the inning with a double and Kaleb DeLaTorre drew a walk. Knopp sacrificed the runners over. Durossette scored on a passed ball and DeLaTorre scored on a ground-ball out.

Bradbury and Durossette hit back-to-back singles leading off the fifth. Catcher Chase Brown doubled with 2 out to plate both runners. Aj Smith went in as the courtesy runner and later scored on Zach Denton's single, which made it 6-0.

"Our lineup was so aggressive at the plate," Regan said. "It was clear that we weren't intimidated and we were up there to bang. When Wolfe left pitches up, we didn't miss them. We also did the little things that add up: getting guys on, moving them over, and driving them in."

The Tigers' final run scored in the top of the seventh. Knopp led off and reached base on an error. Drew Martin went in to run for him, moved to second on Brown's sacrifice and scored on Denton's single.

Bradbury, Durossette, Brown and Denton each had 2 hits for Fort Scott. Tyler Ketterman and Alex Payne each had 2 hits for Nevada.

The Tigers, who have already clinched their second Southeast Kansas League title in as many seasons, are idle until Thursday, when they face Chanute in their league- and regular-season concluding doubleheader at 4:30 p.m. at Lions Field.

Fort Scott.......... 102 030 1 -- 7 11 0

Nevada............... 000 002 0 -- 2 7 1

WP -- Knopp (5-0). LP -- Wolfe.

HR -- None.