A night after hitting six home runs to beat Haysville, the Hays Larks used singles and doubles to do their damage in a 7-1 win over the Aviators.  Chandler Coates pitched seven strong innings, allowing just a single run on a home run by Haysville’s Brandon Lankford.  Jace Selsor drove in the Larks’ first run of the night with an single in the second, scoring Colin Simpson.  An inning later Simpson drove in Trey Ochoa for a 2-0 lead.

Coates (2-1) kept the bats of Haysville idle until the seventh when Lankford pounded the first pitch of the at-bat over the 405 sign in center field.  The Larks got the run back in the bottom of the inning to go back up 3-1 when Ochoa scored for a second time when Jacob Boston hit a sacrifice fly to right field.

Highlights

Ryan Kotulek came on in relief in the top of the eight inning and worked himself out of trouble.  In a 3-1 game, following a lead off single and a sacrifice bunt by Haysville, Kotulek picked off the Aviator’s Dylan Hutcheson at second base.  It was the second successful pick off of the night for the Larks pitching staff.

The Larks then opened the game up in the bottom of the eighth.  Jonathan Soberanes drove in Spencer Packard with the bases loaded.  Another run scored on the play when the Aviators didn’t field the left fielder’s throw, allowing the ball to roll the back stop and Alex Weiss to score pushing the lead to 5-1.  Clayton Rasberry then doubled up the right field line with two outs scoring both Selsor and Soberanes for the 7-1 difference.

Coach Frank Leo

Coates went seven innings allowing just two hits, one run, striking out four and walking two.  Kotulek and Kent Hasler each pitched a scoreless inning.  The three pitchers allowed just three hits combined.  Packard recorded three hits while Simpson and Soler added two each in the ten hit attack.  Haysville used five pitchers with Cooper Cantwell taking the loss despite allowing just two runs in the five innings of work.

The Larks have won five consecutive games and move to 8-4 overall and 8-3 in the Jayhawk League.  Haysville falls to 5-9 both overall and in league play, losing seven in a row.  Hays is off tomorrow before heading to El Dorado Tuesday for a three game set.