CLEVELAND (AP) — Josh Tomlin stayed unbeaten and again helped Cleveland bounce back after a loss, leading the Indians to a 5-4 win over the Kansas City Royals on Sunday.
Tomlin (5-0) worked into the seventh inning and became the first Indians pitcher to win his first five outings since Justin Masterson in 2011. Tomlin is 12-0 in 13 starts following a loss since the beginning of last season.
Carlos Santana and Mike Napoli homered off Edinson Volquez (3-3) as the Indians took two of three from the defending World Series champions.
Eric Hosmer homered for the Royals, just 3-9 in their last 12.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Ian Kennedy pitched four-hit ball for seven innings, Kendrys Morales homered and drove in four runs, and the Kansas City Royals blanked the Cleveland Indians 7-0 on Saturday.
Kennedy (4-2) worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth and retired 14 in a row at one point. He struck out six while helping end Cleveland’s four-game winning streak.
Morales hit a three-run homer in the first, providing an early boost for Kansas City’s struggling offense. He added an RBI single in the eighth.
Kansas City’s win came at an opportune time. The Royals had lost eight of 10 and announced before the game that third baseman Mike Moustakas was put on the 15-day disabed list with a fractured left thumb.
Cody Anderson (0-2), called up from the minors before the game, allowed four runs in five innings.
The Hays High Indians finished the Diamond Classic with a win and 3-1 record, plus a victory on the official Senior Day. What the Indians needed though was a six run victory to claim the tournament title. Hays High, Salina Central, and Great Bend all finished with a 3-1 tournament record. Great Bend took the team title with at plus 16 runs, Hays High finishes runner up at plus 14 and Salina Central was plus 11.
Highlights
Goddard used a three run second inning to jump up on Hays early. The Lions added a single run in the third to go up 4-0. The chances to score for Hays looked bleak with two outs in the bottom half of the third. Marcus Altman walked and stole a base to get into scoring position for Brayden Delzeit to drive him in for the Indian’s first run. Hays used that momentum to score five runs all with two outs in the third. Hays tied the game on a bases loaded walk by Cole Schumacher and took a 5-4 lead on a single by Dalton Stout. Hays added a run in the fourth and two more in the sixth for the 8-4 victory.
Coach Frank Leo
Palmer Hutchison earned his second career win pitching 5.2 innings in relief of Grant Coffman. Hays is now 11-5 on the year. Goddard used five pitchers in the game and falls to 3-15.
Hays returns to action on Tuesday at Liberal. Regional seedings will come out on Wednesday. Hays will then play their final games of the season in a makeup contest hosting Garden City on Thursday.
Great Bend 6 – Salina Central 1
Salina Central suffered the only loss of the tournament with a 6-1 loss to Great Bend in the second of three games at the Diamond Classic on Saturday. Great Bend scored four runs in the third then took a six run lead with two in the top of the sixth. Salina Central scored their only run in the sixth inning. The Mustangs did get a lead-off single to start the seventh, but the Great Bend defense used a force out and a ground ball double play to end the game.
Great Bend and Salina Central both go 3-1 in the Diamond Classic. Salina Central is 8-8 on the year and Great Bend is 12-4.
Goddard 3 – Life Prep Academy 1
Goddard scored all three of their runs in the bottom of the fourth inning and held on to claim their first win of the tournament Saturday morning. The Lions led off the inning with three consecutive singles and totaled four of their eight game hits in the fourth.
Life Prep answered back with one in the fifth then loaded the bases with one out in the top of the seventh inning but did not score. For Goddard it is their third win of the season and breaks a streak of five consecutive one run losses.
HAYS, Kan. – Bishop Carroll scored the lone goal in the 70th minute and TMP-Marian could not get the equalizer as the Monarchs drop their home finale 1-0 Saturday afternoon at the Bickle-Schmidt Sports Complex. Deonna Wellbrock had 12 saves in goal for TMP who falls to 8-3-1 on the season.
The Monarchs travel to Wichita Monday to play Word of Life
HAYS, Kan. – Joe Mapes and Alex King both homered as Fort Hays State overcame an early three-run deficit then held off a Northwest Missouri State rally for a 9-8 win and sweep the three-game MIAA series Saturday afternoon at Larks Park. The Tigers (23-26, 17-21 MIAA) won their final four and six of their last seven. The Bearcats (24-26, 19-20 MIAA) lost their sixth straight.
Steve Johnson Postgame Interview
Game Highlights
The Bearcats scored three in the third to take a 3-0 lead but the Tigers answered on Mapes three-run opposite field home run down the left field line in the fourth. Alex King followed two batters later with an opposite field solo shot to right to put FHSU up 4-3. The Tigers scored five in the fifth in singles from Alex Weiss, Joe Mapes, Alex King and Ty Redington.
The Bearcats rallied with a run in the sixth and and seventh, two in the eighth then a solo homer in the ninth.
Freshman Logan Herd allowed five runs (four earned) on 10 hits in five innings of relief for his fourth win of the season. Austin Unrein entered with one out in the ninth and picked up his second save in consecutive games.
King went 3-for-4 and drove in three while Mapes had two hits and knocked in four.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Kansas City Royals announced today that the club has placed third baseman Mike Moustakas on the 15-day disabled list with a left thumb fracture, retroactive to May 5. In a corresponding move, the club has recalled infielder Chesler Cuthbert from Omaha (AAA).
Cuthbert, 23, was hitting .333 with four doubles, seven homers and 28 RBI in his first 24 games with the Storm Chasers.
Hays got strong pitching performances from two young players in a 4-2 loss to Salina Central on Friday night. Sophomore Cole Murphy pitched in his first varsity game going 3.1 innings allowing three runs and four four hits while walking four and striking out four. Murphy took the loss on the night. Freshman Trey Riggs came to just his third game, entering with the bases loaded and only one out. Riggs induced an inning ending double play to end the Salina Central threat. Riggs went on to pitch the final 3.2 innings allowing two hits and one run striking out three and walking one.
Coach Frank Leo
The young arms were out-dueled though by Salina Central’s Andrew Stratman and Ethan Kickhaefer. Hays managed just three hits over the seven inning game. Hays plated two runs in the bottom of the third inning to tie the game at 2-2. Central responded with single runs in the fourth and seventh. Stratman threw five innings for the victory giving up the two runs on three hits striking out seven and walking three. Kickhaefer came in for a two inning save, his second of the season, facing the minimum six possible.
Highlights
Central improves to 3-0 in the tournament and 8-7 overall. Hays falls to 2-1 in the tourney and 10-5 overall.
Hays finishes their tournament play tomorrow against Goddard at 2:30. Goddard will open Saturday with a 10:00 game with Life Prep Academy. Salina Central and Great Bend will play the middle game at 12:30
Great Bend 13 – Life Prep 1
Great Bend scored seven runs in the first inning and had no trouble in beating Life Prep Academy 13-1. The win moves Great Bend to 2-1 in the tournament and 11-4 on the year.
Salina Central 4 – Goddard 3
It took an extra inning for Salina Central and Goddard to finalize their game on Friday. The Central Mustangs took a 3-0 lead after the first four innings but gave them back allowing two in the fifth and one in the sixth. Neither team threatened to score in the seventh and Goddard did not get a base runner in the eighth.
Salina Central scored in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI single by Ben Driver for the 4-3 victory. It is the ninth one run loss for Goddard this season who falls to 2-14.
Great Bend 5 – Goddard 4
Goddard scored four runs in the top of the first inning, but would not score again and fall 5-4 to Great Bend. Great Bend did not score until the fourth inning when they plated three getting within in a run at 4-3. Great Bend tied the game on a RBI single with one out leaving runners at second and third. Goddard then elected to load the bases on an intentional pass. The Panthers scored the winning run on the ensuing walk. Great Bend moves to 10-4. Goddard drops to 2-13.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Jose Ramirez got three hits and drove in a career-high five runs as the Cleveland Indians defeated the reeling Kansas City Royals 7-1 Friday night for their fourth straight win.
The World Series champion Royals have lost eight of 10.
Ramirez delivered a bases-loaded double in the third and a two-run double in the fifth. He singled in the second, walked in the eighth and raised his batting average to .324.
Danny Salazar (3-2) held the Royals to four hits and struck out nine in 7 2/3 innings.
Yordano Ventura (2-2) allowed five runs and threw 97 pitches in four innings. The right-hander walked five, increasing his AL-leading total to 25.
HAYS, Kan. – Senior pitcher D.J. Carr threw seven strong innings, Giles Fox and Austin Unrein added a pair of scoreless frames to lead Fort Hays State to a 4-3 win over Northwest Missouri State Friday in the middle game of their three-game MIAA series. to nail down the win. The Tigers are now 22-26 overall and 16-21 in the MIAA, while the Bearcats dropped to 24-25 overall and 19-19 in the conference.
Fort Hays State (22-26, 16-21 MIAA) struck early taking a 1-0 lead in the bottom half of the first inning on a Joe Mapes sacrifice fly with the bases loaded. After the Bearcats (24-25, 19-19 MIAA) tied the game with a run in the second, the Tigers regained the lead with two in the bottom of the inning on a Connor Ross two-run single.
FHSU extended the lead to 4-1 i the fifth on a Caleb Cherryholmes RBI double.
Fox, who earned his sixth save of the season on Thursday night, pitched a scoreless eighth and was helped out by Austin Unrein who cut down the potential tying run at the plate on a grounder to first base.
Unrein retired the first two batters in the ninth, then after back-to-back singles, earned his first save of the season after a foul pop up ended the game.
The Tigers and Bearcats wrap up the series on Saturday at 1 pm. It will be the final game of the season for Fort Hays State and serves as Senior Day for the Tigers.
By RANDY GONZALES Fort Hays State University Relations and Marketing
If your record is going to be broken, it might as well be by a teammate.
Fort Hays State University is the home for two of the top javelin throwers in the nation in NCAA Division II who also rank in the top 20 among all female throwers, no matter what division.
Estefania Lopez and Madison Wolf have taken turns breaking the school record in the event. Lopez first broke the record at the 2015 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships with a throw of 170 feet, 8 inches. On April 15, at the KT Woodman Classic in Wichita, Wolf broke Lopez’s mark, uncorking a winning throw of 170-10. That mark lasted all of one week. On April 21, Lopez regained her school record with a throw of 173-8, finishing second at the KU Relays in Lawrence.
“She broke the school record a few weeks ago, then I do the same,” said Lopez, a junior sports management major from Valencia, Spain. “It’s kind of fun.”
Wolf, a junior from Bennington majoring in business-marketing, likes the fact the two throwers make each other better.
“We’ve got a good, competitive spirit going,” Wolf said. “We’re always light-hearted about it, but we always like to be competitive with each other. That’s always good, to have a teammate push you to be the best you can be.”
Going into this weekend’s Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association conference meet in Maryville, Mo., Lopez and Wolf rank second and third, respectively, among NCAA II javelin throwers. They trail only Allison Updike of California’s Azusa Pacific University on the national charts. Updike has a throw of 175-11 this year.
The women’s javelin is scheduled for Sunday at the MIAA meet. Is it possible the school record could fall again?
“I think we can throw farther than we have thrown,” Lopez said.
While Lopez threw the javelin for a year at the University of Valencia before coming to Fort Hays State, Wolf had no thoughts of trying the event until she contracted pneumonia during basketball season her senior year in high school, then opted not to participate in her normal running events during track season.
Instead, she decided to give javelin a try and ended up winning the Class 2A state championship in the event. She was planning on attending FHSU anyway, but now it would be on a track scholarship.
“A lot of schools called me wanting to do javelin,” Wolf said. “My heart was still set on Fort Hays State.”
What Wolf thought was a bad break turned into a positive end result.
“At the time it was the worst thing that could happen to me,” Wolf said. “If it hadn’t happened, I would not be where I am. I would never have thought to pick up a javelin, and I wouldn’t have all this success. Just good things from me being sick.”
Part of the reason Wolf likes FHSU is her coach in her specialty, Andreas Maheras, who has developed both throwers into elite talents.
“I wanted to go to Fort Hays State because Coach Maheras is the best,” Wolf said. “He has helped immensely. He has his stuff down pat.”
Lopez also sang Maheras’ praises. He was the one who worked through a Spanish agency to bring Lopez to Fort Hays State. Once she was here, he worked on Lopez’s form.
“We tried a new technique,” Lopez said. “My technique was so bad.”
Maheras said he applied simple “bread and butter” techniques to get the best out of talented throwers.
“Based on the limited time available for practice, I employ methods that have direct and transferable results on their performance,” Maheras said.
The NCAA Division II national meet starts May 26 in Bradenton, Fla., and both Tiger javelin throwers already have qualified for the season finale. The top eight finishers in each event earn All-American status. Wolf placed sixth as a freshman and fourth last year, when Lopez was national runner-up at the season finale.
“At nationals, we just want to go out there with a competitive edge,” Wolf said. “We know we’re going to have to perform well if we want to be on the All-American list.”
But nationals will have to wait. There’s an MIAA championship — and meet record — to chase.
Wolf thinks the conference record could fall this weekend to one of the two Tigers. The record is 161 feet, 4.25 inches, and Lopez came close last year with her winning throw of 161-1.
“For the MIAA conference (meet), Estefania and I want to push each other to break the meet record,” Wolf said. “Both of us post marks consistently better than that. That’s our goal for conference.”
It has been a long road for Drew Young at Hays High. But at the same time, the journey went very quickly. In the fall of 2015 Young broke his ankle playing dunk ball at a friend’s house. That injury help him realize something though. Young realized how much basketball meant to him and how important it was to put in the effort to continue his playing days behind high school.
Drew Young
On Friday Young inked his letter of intent to play for Colby Community College just down Interstate 70 from Hays. This past season Young was second on the team in scoring at 12 per game, lead the team in assists at 4.6 per contest, was second in steals and first in charges taken. Young scored in double figures fifteen times his senior season and eighteen in his career. Young also finished just outside the top 20 in career assists despite logging just 46 games.
Assistant Coach Tim Nunnery
Young says he will be hitting the weight room to add muscle, improve his quickness and speed of his shooting release before heading to Colby in August.
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas men’s basketball landed a big one as center Udoka Azubuike (You-doke-uh As-a-boo-key) has signed and will be a freshman at KU in 2016-17, KU head coach Bill Self announced Friday.
Azubuike (7-foot-0, 275 pounds) was on the postseason all-star circuit in spring 2016. He is a McDonald’s All-America and scored nine points and eight rebounds in 15 minutes for the East team McDonald’s game March 29 in Chicago. The Lagos, Nigeria native also played for the World Team at the 2016 Nike Hoops Summit where the USA team defeated the World Team 101-67 on April 9 in Portland, Oregon. Additionally, he competed in the Jordan Brand Classic, April 15, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Originally from Lagos, Nigeria, Azubuike verbally committed to Kansas in late January. He averaged 16.9 points and 9.7 rebounds this past season while at Potter’s House Christian Academy in Jacksonville, Florida in leading the Lions to a 21-9 record under head coach Stephen McLaughlin. Azubuike was a four-year starter for Potter’s House and averaged 17.2 points and 9.6 rebounds his junior season. Azubuike is described as one of the most dominant big men in the class of 2016.
“We feel Udoka is as good as a big-man prospect as there is in the country,” Self said. “He’s got size, strength, explosiveness and is so young. Being only 16 years old, his best ball is well ahead of him. One fortunate thing about Udoka’s age is we know he has to be in school for at least two years due to the NBA minimum age requirements. We see him as an impact guy right off the bat with a high ceiling.”
In the class of 2016, Azubuike is ranked No. 22 overall by ESPN100. He is No. 27 by Rivals.com and No. 34 by Scout.com.
“Norm (Roberts) was the point man in his recruitment,” Self said. “It has been an absolute pleasure in getting to know Udoka and also his guardians, Harry and Donna Coxsome. Being in the United States for a short period, we have seen so much development in his comfort level, not only with us but with the surroundings and everything that goes along with basketball in the States.”
Azubuike joins guard Josh Jackson, who signed May 3, and forward Mitch Lightfoot who signed with Kansas in November 2015.
Kansas Basketball 2016 Signees
Udoka Azubuike, Center, 7-0, 275 lbs., Lagos, Nigeria, Potter’s House Christian Academy (Fla.)
HAYS, Kan. – Connor Ross had four hits and Kyle Vogt was two outs shy of a complete game as Fort Hays State beat Northwest Missouri State 7-3 Thursday night in the first game of their three-game series at Larks Park.
Steve Johnson Postgame Interview
Game Highlights
The Tigers (21-26, 15-21 MIAA) scored all of their runs in six consecutive innings for their fourth win in the last five games. They used two-out singles in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth to build a 4-2 lead.
Austin Unrein and Caleb Cherryholmes both had three of the Tigers 15 hits, the first five of which never left the infield.
Vogt (5-6) allowed three runs on seven hits over 8 1/3 innings with two strikeouts and two walks. He left with two on and one out in the ninth. Giles Fox issued a two-out walk to load the bases but got a strikeout to end the game and pick up his sixth save.
The Bearcats scored two in the first on a Garrett Fort double down the right field line then added another run in the sixth on a two-out triple from Kevin Handzlik.
The two teams play at 5 pm Friday the close out the series with a 1 pm game on Saturday.
