Gorman, Self take second in doubles at Parsons

PARSONS -- Alex Gorman and Micah Self continued their improvement Friday as they finished second in No. 1 doubles at the Parsons Invitational.

After starting the season 0-5, the duo has won 12 of their last 16 matches. They defeated James Richey/Noah Kangas of Pittsburg, 8-2, in the first round then beat Ashford Jordan/Brock O'Malley of Pittsburg by the same score in the second round. Next, they defeated Jacquwan Williams/Kaden Hammer of Parsons, 8-3. In their last match of the day, they lost to Mitchell Reitz/Zach Holman of Coffeyville, 8-2.

"Alex and Micah played some good doubles today until the final match against Coffeyville," Fort Scott head coach Lynn Barr said. "They just were never able to get anything going in that match. It appeared we were pressing, trying to get the win against a team that beat them earlier in the season, and to give Coffeyville credit, they played very well and really took control of the match from the start."

Alex Combs (9-11) finished third in No. 1 singles. He defeated Jack Warring of Pittsburg, 8-2, lost to Dan Grice of Independence, 8-4; fell to Adam Ball of Parsons, 8-3; and beat Mink Song of Coffeyville, 8-3.

Jacob Bailey and Franklin Torres played No. 2 singles in the place of Elijah Wright and Joe Adams, who had to sit out in order to avoid exceeding the KSHSAA's limit on the number of days they can compete during the regular season. Bailey played varsity doubled earlier this season while Torres was playing varsity for the first time.

Bailey and Torres were 0-4 for the day. They lost to Pat Sullivan/Josh Lee of Pittsburg, 8-4; Harlan Milligan/Chase Tucker of Independence, 8-1; Isaac Stringer/Josh O'Shea of Parsons, 8-0; and Ben conn/Josh Wilson of Coffeyville, 8-1.

First-year player Xavier Watkins (2-10) finished fourth in No. 2 singles. He received a forfeit from Coffeyville to pick up his second win of the year. Parsons put in an extra player in Coffeyville's slot so that the other players would still get four matches played.

Watkins lost to Jamean Delp of Pittsburg, Cortlan Cox of Independence and Hunter Metcalf of Parsons, all by 8-1 counts. Caleb Valdez, the Parsons player who stood in for Coffeyville's vacancy, defeated Watkins, 8-3.

Friday, the Tigers will play at Chanute with action set to begin at 2 p.m.

NOTES -- Monday's home junior varsity tournament was cancelled due to wet conditions caused by overnight rains. There were not enough common open dates among the schools that were to play in it for a make-up date to be possible....