The Fort Hays State Tigers scored 18 runs on 19 hits to salvage the final game of their doubleheader with Washburn 18-14 Thursday in Topeka. The Ichabods took game one 7-4. The Tigers are now 20-15 overall and 16-14 in the MIAA.
Game 1: Washburn 7, Fort Hays State 4
Washburn took advantage of two Tiger errors by shortstop Sam Thornton, scoring five runs (two earned) with two outs to take a 5-0 lead. They would add two more an inning later and were up 7-0.
The Tigers got on the board in the fifth when Shane Wade scored on a wild pitch. They would add two more in the sixth on a Horace Johnson two-run homer.
Kelton Rule’s two-out RBI single in the ninth drove in the Tigers final run. The Tigers had the tying run at the plate but Shane Wade lined to short to end the game.
Starter Jesse hart (3-2) takes the loss allowing seven runs (four earned) striking out three and walking one.
Game 2: Fort Hays State 18, Washburn 14
The Tigers and Ichabods combine for 32 runs and 36 hits in the second game. Washburn scored three in the second to take a 3-2 lead but the Tigers answered with five in the top of the third and never trailed again. Kelton Rules’s second homer of the game, a three-run shot with two outs was the big blow in the inning.
Rule finished 3-for-6 with 5 RBI and four runs scored. Jordan Miller also homored and went 3-for-4 and Ryan Busboom added three hits.
Jay Sanders led the Tigers 19 hit attack going 4-for-5 with six RBIs and two runs scored. He becomes the first Tiger to hit for the cycle since Nash Smith in 2011 when the tripled tripled to left center field with the bases loaded in Fort Hays State’s four-run eighth. Sanders singled in the second, hit a two-run homer in the fifth and a doubled in the sixth.