Hays High needed a sweep on Monday night to claim at least a share of the Western Athletic Conference baseball crown.  The Indians though split with the Great Bend Panthers and will have wait on the outcome of Liberal versus Garden City.  Liberal currently sits at 5-1 in conference play and Hays is finished at 6-2.

Game 1

Great Bend pitching held Hays High scoreless in handing the Indians a 2-0 loss.  Trey Riggs pitched a complete game four hitter throwing just 87 pitches.

The Panthers struck for two runs following an error in the fifth inning for deciding margin.  Townsend Kurth and Calan Haberman each drove home a run for Great Bend in the inning.

Highlights

The Indians were turned back in the sixth inning with the bases loaded.  Great Bend’s shortstop Alex Schremmer made a sliding stop on a ground ball deep up the middle that started an inning ending double play.  Schremmer then grabbed the save on a perfect ninth inning on the mound.

Game 2

Great Bend struck for four runs in the first inning against starter Cole Murphy.  The Panthers send nine to the plate gathering four hits while the Indians committed two errors.

Murphy settled into a groove after that and along with Cody Petersen, who pitched the final two innings, held Great Bend scoreless next six innings.

Hays left runners stranded in every inning until the fourth when freshman Dom Bainter singled in his first varsity at-bat to score Trey VanPelt closing the score down to 4-1.

Highlights

Hays once again left runners on the base path in the fifth and sixth.

The Indians finally found their offense in the seventh facing Schremmer who was in for the close for a second consecutive game.  Trey Riggs led the inning off with a double followed by a Cole Murphy walk and Cody Petersen was hit by a pitch to load the bases.  Trey VanPelt just missed a grand slam homerun to win the game but the did score two runs on the long single to close the Indian’s gap down to 4-3.

Willie Sennett then walked to load the bases once again in the inning.  Bainter came through with his second RBI single of the game to tie the game at 4-4.  Mason Prescott, running for VanPelt, scored the winning run on a ball put in play by Hunter Brown to win 5-4.

Cody Petersen took the win in relief.  It is his first career varsity victory.

Coach Frank Leo

Hays is now 8-4 on the year with the game two victory snapping a four game skid.  The Indians are currently on a 16 day stretch where they will play 14 of their 20 regular season games.

Hays High will host the Western Plains Diamond Classic this Thursday through Saturday.