WICHITA, Kan. – The Hays Larks couldn’t dig themselves out of an early hole and lost 7-3 to the Cheney Diamond Dawgs in the second round of Championship Week pool play at the NBC World Series. The Diamond Dawgs, who advanced out of the First Week, improved to 6-0 in the tournament and 2-0 in pool play while the Larks (32-16) fall to 1-1.

Frank Leo Postgame Interview

Game Highlights

The Diamond Dawgs struck for a run in the first inning then two on a Daniel Richardson home run in the second to go up 3-0.

Alex Weiss two-out double down the right field line made it 2-1 in the bottom of the second.
Cheney added two in the fifth to go up 5-1.

The Larks chipped away with a run in the fifth on a Colin Simpson infield single then added another run in the sixth on a Nick Jones infield single to close the gap to two.

The Diamond Dawgs added single runs in the seventh and eighth to for the final margin.

Bradley Demco pitched 3 1/3 scoreless innings for the save, holding the Larks to one hit with six strikeouts. Starter Austin Gehle allowed three runs on seven hits with five strikeouts for the win.

Chandler Coates gave up five runs on nine hits with two walks and no strikeouts over 5 innings and suffered the loss.

Clayton Rasbeary and Jacob Boston both had two hits.

The Larks will close out pool play Thursday against the Seattle (WA) Studs, needing a win to have any chance to advance to Friday’s quarterfinals.