WICHITA – Austin O’Brien and Alex Weiss both had three hits and Michael Burns drove in two runs and and scored twice to lead the Hays Larks to a 7-4 win over the Northwest (WA) Honkers Tuesday at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium. The Larks (41-10) improved to 3-0 at the NBC World Series and won the Pool A title. 

Frank Leo Postgame

Game Highlights

Hays scored three runs in the first inning on singles from Mike Mioduszewski and Alex Weiss. Jacob Boston was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to bring home the third run of the game.

After a leadoff double by Weiss, a single by Garrett McKenzie and a walk to Ty Redington, O’Brien and Burns both hit two-out, two-run singles to push the lead to 7-0 in the third.

The Honkers (36-20) got a two-out, three-run homer from pinch hitter Chaz Lopez off of Austin Isenhart to cut the gap to 7-3 in the fifth. They loaded the bases with no outs in the eighth, but were held one run. After giving up a bases-loaded walk, Chad Smith struck out the next two batters to limit the damage.

Graylon Brown worked around a one-out walk in ninth, getting a double play when the Northwest base runner ran through the bag at second and the Larks were awarded a double-play to end the game.

Isenhart (3-1) allowed three runs on six hits with four strikeouts and two walks and picked up the win. Brown got his third save.

The Larks advance to Thursday’s quarterfinals and will play the Fairbanks (AK) Goldpanners who finished runner-up in Pool C after a 4-3 loss to the Santa Barbara (CA) Foresters Tuesday night. The game time has not been announced.