The home softball doubleheader scheduled against Southwestern Oklahoma State on Tuesday, February 26 has been cancelled due to the large amount of snowfall that has occurred in Hays.

There is no make-up date scheduled at this time.

Next on the slate for the softball team will be the Teri Mathis Zenner Memorial Tournament in Joplin, Mo., March 1-2.

The Fort Hays State Lady Tigers are ranked No. 10 in the first NCAA II Central Region Rankings released Wednesday afternoon. They are one of four teams from the MIAA in the poll which is used to determine at-large bids into the Central Regional of the NCAA II national tournament.

Washburn tops the poll with Central Missouri second and Truman fifth.

The first NCAA II Central Region Rankings have been released by the NCAA and the Fort Hays State Tigers sit at No. 8. They are one of two school’s from the MIAA in poll. Central Missouri sits at No. 6. The Tigers and Mules share the MIAA lead with two weeks to go in the regular season.

Winona State (Minn.) is ranked first in the poll. The region rankings are used to determine at-large bids into the eight-team Central Region of the NCAA II tournament.

Fort Hays State ended its three-game slide to begin MIAA play with a doubleheader sweep of Washburn at Larks Park in Hays on Tuesday. Fort Hays State won game one by a slim 5-3 margin, then ran away with game two 14-2 by run-rule in seven innings. The Tigers moved to 5-4 overall and 2-3 in the MIAA. Washburn moved to 2-3 overall and 2-3 in the MIAA.

Game 1: Fort Hays State 5, Washburn 3
A two-out single in the first inning by Nate Miller put the Tigers up 2-0 early, but Washburn cut the lead in half in the fourth inning on a RBI ground out by Dakota Kell.

The Tigers responded with two more in the bottom half of the fourth when Sam Thornton and Clayton Garland each generated one RBI each on infield grounders after Jay Sanders and Jordan Miller started off the inning with back-to-back singles and a double steal.

Washburn continued to chip away with one run in the fifth and one in the sixth to make it 4-3 late in the 7-inning contest, but Fort Hays State gained an insurance run courtesy of a throwing error on the Ichabods in the sixth when they tried to turn a double play to get out of the inning.

Kyle Leroy shut the door on the Ichabods, allowing just a leadoff single in the seventh before retiring the final three batters. He picked up the first save of the season for FHSU in 2.0 innings of work after entering one batter into the sixth for starter Nathan Zimmerman. Zimmerman went 5.0 innings in the start, allowing three runs on six hits with two strikeouts.

Game 2: Fort Hays State 14, Washburn 2
Fort Hays State opened the scoring in the second contest with three in the second. Sam Thornton and Clayton Garland had back-to-back RBI singles. Jordan Miller scored in the inning on a wild pitch. Ryan Busboom added to the lead with a solo home run in the third to make it 4-0.

After Washburn picked up a run in the top of the fourth, the FHSU offense exploded for seven runs in the bottom of the fourth. Thornton started the scoring with a safety squeeze bunt to plate a run. Garland backed that with a RBI single followed by a Chris Santoscoy RBI double. Nathan Miller knocked in a run with a single before Kelton Rule topped the inning off with a three-run home run to give FHSU an 11-1 advantage.

Washburn added its final run in the fifth before Busboom pushed the advantage back to 10 in the sixth with his second solo home run of the game. Rule scored on a wild pitch later in the inning and Thornton drove home his third run of the game with a sacrifice fly to make it 14-2.

Nathan Briar did not allow a run in relief over the final two innings, allowing FHSU to win by run-rule after seven innings. He preserved the win for Alex Ellison, who went 5.0 innings in the start. He allowed just four hits and a walk with two strikeouts. Only one of the runs he allowed was earned. Ellison moved to 1-1 on the season.

The Tigers are scheduled to play a three-game weeekend series at Central Oklahoma on Saturday and Sunday.

The weekend slate of games this Friday, Saturday and Sunday for Fort Hays State at the NSIC/MIAA Crossover Dome Tournament in Rochester, Minn. have been cancelled due to the inclement weather forecasted throughout the central region of the United States. Fort Hays State was scheduled to play five games at the tournament.

Next on the schedule for Fort Hays State is a doubleheader against Southwestern Oklahoma State in Hays on Tuesday, February 26.

Fort Hays State junior Dwayne Brunson was named the MIAA Men’s Basketball Athlete of the Week on Monday for his efforts last week in a pair of road wins at Northwest Missouri State and Nebraska-Kearney. Brunson is a native of Queens, N.Y., and leads the Tigers in scoring, currently at 15.7 points per game.

Brunson averaged 22.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.0 blocked shots, and 2.0 steals per game last week. He scored a career-high 35 points at Nebraska-Kearney, shooting a very efficient 14-of-16 from the field, also recording seven rebounds and five blocked shots in the game. He was also a perfect 7-of-7 from the free-throw line. The 35 points was the most scored in a game by a Tiger since the 1998 season when Chris Danner had 36 against Nebraska-Kearney. It marked the most points scored by a Tiger under head coach Mark Johnson, as the previous high was 34 by Dominique Jones against Midwestern State during the 2010-11 season. Brunson also reached double figures in scoring in the win at Northwest Missouri State with 10 points and six rebounds. Brunson has scored in double figures in 20 of 23 games for FHSU this year.

This is the third time a Fort Hays State player has been selected for the honor this year in men’s basketball. Freshman point guard Craig Nicholson has earned the honor twice already this year.

– FHSU Sports Information –

A rough weekend for the Fort Hays State baseball team which was outscored 43-11 and swept by No. 9 Central Missouri. The Mules wrapped up the series with a 10-0, seven inning run-rule win yesterday.

The Tigers commit seven errors resulting in five unearned runs. Starter Robert VanCour took the loss, allowing three unearned runs in an inning and a third.

The Tigers fall to 3-4 in the season and 0-3 in the conference. They host Washburn in a double-header beginning at 1:30 Wednesday.

The Tiger softball team goes 5-1 in Bentonville, Arkansas over the weekend.

The Tigers dropped their first of the year 6-1 to Illinois-Springfield in their first game yesterday but bounced back to beat Nebraska-Kearney 6-0.

Maddie Holub struck out 12 against the Lopers in the complete game shutout and has now gone 23 innings without allowing an earned run to start the season.

The Tigers are now 7-1 on the season.