The Hays Larks were five outs away from moving into a second place tie in the Jayhawk League North but four walks and a wild pitch with one out in the eighth inning allowed Liberal to score two runs and beat the Larks 3-2 at Brent Gould Field in Liberal.

Reliever Nick Goza (2-3) got a fly out to open the eighth then struggled finding the strike zone and takes the loss. Starter Cam Roegner allowed just one run on two hits with six strike outs over seven innings.

The Larks grabbed a 2-1 lead on Evan Greuner’s two-out, two-run double in the sixth.

Hays (21-18, 17-16) now sits two games back of the Bee Jays (25-16, 19-14) with three games to play and will need to win the three remaining games in the series to finish second and secure a spot in the NBC World Series.

Game two of the series is Friday night in Liberal before the series shifts to Hays for games three and four on Saturday and Sunday.