Hays High softball was in Buhler on Tuesday for one of eight KSHSAA regional tournaments.  Hays was listed as the one seed at 9-9 on the year following last Wednesday’s seeding.  The Indians entered the tournament at 10-10 after splitting with Andover Central on Thursday.  The Indians took on 0-20 Buhler in game one.  The other semifinal featured 6-14 Abilene and 4-16 McPherson.

Semifinal 1

Hays 11 – Buhler 7

Buhler took advantage of two Indian errors in the first and two more in the second for a 7-0 lead after an inning and a half.  The Indians scratched their first run across in the bottom of the second inning on a Mackenzie sacrifice fly scoring Reanna Harman.

Hays finally broke through on offense in the third scoring seven runs on seven hits.  The Indians sent eleven to th-e plate with the first eight reaching safely.  Brooke Denning hit the Indian’s fourth double of the inning to give Hays their first lead of 8-7.  Hays scored eleven consecutive runs for a 11-7 victory.

Jaysa Wicher took the victory in relief of Kaitlyn Brown.

Higlights

Semifinal 2

Abilene 9 – McPherson 0

Abilene struck first in the home half of the third inning scoring two runs on a two out throwing error.  The Cowgirls added a third unearned run to take a 3-0 lead.

McPherson was turned away in the fifth thanks to a double play by the Cowgirls and a ground out to strand two runners.

Abilene added four more runs in the fifth following two more McPherson errors for a 7-0 lead.

McPherson again stranded two in the sixth inning ahead of Abilene plating two more runs for a 9-0 advantage and victory.

 

Championship

Abilene 12 – Hays 6

Hays struck first in the championship game against Abilene.  The first three Indians reached before Reanna Harman drove in a run on a ground out to the right side.  One pitch later Jaysa Wichers laced a single up the middle for a 3-0 lead.

Abilene answered right back scoring four runs.  The Cowgirls scored one of the runs on a wild pitch and another on a fielding error, those two runs tied the game and then gave Abilene the 4-3 lead.

Errors nearly cost Hays the semifinal game.  The errors showed again in the top of the fifth.  Hays committed five errors, walked two batters and gave up three hits in an eight run Abilene inning to give the Cowgirls a 12-3 lead.

Highlights

Hays jumped back on the scoreboard with two outs in the sixth inning scoring three runs.  Brooke Denning drove in two on a double and Cassidy Prough knocked in a run to cut the deficit down to 12-6.

Hays went in order in the seventh falling 12-6.

Coach Erin Wagner

Hays ends the year at 11-11.  Abilene improves to 8-14 and qualifies for state for the second time in program history.