FHSU Sports Information
Fort Hays State won its third consecutive game on Wednesday night in a non-conference contest at Newman University. The Tigers won by a score of 10-6 in eight innings, the game shortened by an inning due to lightning then heavy rain. Fort Hays State improved to 10-18 overall on the season, while Newman went to 14-15.
Fort Hays State capitalized on three Newman errors in the first inning to take a 3-0 lead. Austin Unrein reached base by an error, then scored on an error by a Newman outfielder on a single by Clayton Garland. Garland got all the way to third on the error, then scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Horace Johnson, which was dropped by the outfielder. After getting to second base, Johnson came in to score on a Gabe Cook single. The FHSU lead grew to 4-0 in the second with an RBI single by Garland.
Newman got on the board with a run in the second, then held the Tigers scoreless for the next three innings. That was long enough to get the score tied at 4-4 by the end of the fifth as the Jets scored one in the fourth and two in the fifth.
The Tigers moved back in front 5-4 on a James Denton two-out RBI double in the sixth and then took advantage of two walks in the seventh to score three runs on back-to-back-to-back singles from Cooper Langley, Cook and Denton to make it 8-4.
Newman got its first two on in the bottom of the seventh and pushed both across to make it 8-6, but the Tigers got both runs back in the top of the eighth when Jordan Miller scored on a wild pitch and Johnson produced his second sacrifice fly RBI of the game.
FHSU reliever Gus Strunk worked around a pair of singles in the eighth, getting a strikeout and fly out to end the threat, keeping the score at 10-6. Strunk entered the game in the seventh and allowed one of the two Newman runs in that frame.
Just as the top of the ninth began, a storm cell rolled into the west side of Wichita causing the game to be delayed and eventually called after a downpour made the field unplayable.
The Tigers continue their road trip with the four-game conference series at Central Oklahoma, starting on Thursday afternoon at 3 pm.