Sixth-seeded Fort Hays State knocked off the No. 3 seed Missouri Southern by a score of 9-6 on Thursday afternoon in the opening round of the MIAA Baseball Tournament Championship at CommunityAmerica Ballpark in Kansas City, Kan. The Tigers moved to 27-22 overall with the win and advance to the four-team double-elimination format that starts on Thursday. Missouri Southern ended its season at 32-19.
Steve Johnson Postgame Interview
Coach Johnson post game Interview
Game Highlights
FHSU Game Hightlights
With the win, Fort Hays State now plays the top seed Central Missouri on Friday at 11 am. The winner advances to Saturday and the loser will play an elimination game at 6 pm against the loser of No. 2 seed Missouri Western vs. No. 4 seed Washburn.
Fort Hays State jumped on top 1-0 on a Mace Krol RBI double off the center field wall in the third inning, but Missouri Southern took its first lead in the bottom half of that inning, taking advantage of a passed ball that set up a two-RBI single with runners at second and third.
The turning point of the game for the Tigers came in the sixth. Trailing 2-1 with the bases loaded, Chris Santoscoy hit a two-out grounder to third base and JC Ochoa eluded a tag at third base to allow the Tigers to tie the game 2-2. Nash Smith followed with a two-RBI single to give the Tigers the lead back at 4-2.
The Tigers tacked on in the seventh with three more runs. Krol hit his third double of the game and then moved to third on a wild pitch. Brandon Hoefler hit a ball to nearly the left field warning track that the fielder dropped and he motored all the way around to third on the play. Hoefler still picked up the sacrifice fly on the play as Krol would have easily scored. With Hoefler at third, Ochoa hit a blast to left center field over the home bullpen for a two-run homer and extended the FHSU lead to 7-2.
FHSU starter Shawn Lewick finally ran into trouble in the seventh, but Kyle Leroy entered with the bases loaded with one out and limited the damage to just one run in the inning. The run scored on a balk called by the home plate umpire on Leroy’s unorthodox pickoff move.
The Tigers pushed their advantage to 9-3 in the eighth when Brandon Hoefler came through with a two out two-RBI single. He led FHSU in RBI for the game with three.
That would be enough to hold up the rest of the way. Leroy surrendered a solo home run in the eighth and then was responsible for the two runs that scored in the ninth after Brett Macari entered to get the final two outs of the game.
Lewick moved to 7-4 on the season with the win, while Cody Griebling took the loss for Missouri Southern, finishing his year at 9-4.
– FHSU Sports Information –