Fort Scott splits in tourney

Fort Scott pitcher John Leek pitches to Springfield's Trent Oxenrider in the sixth inning of a game in the 2007 'Hounds Classic at Lions Field Thursday afternoon. Dillon Knopp is the Dragoons' catcher. Leek allowed five runs and two walks while striking out seven as the Dragoons won 5-1. The Fort Scott team ended up splitting on the day when MacNSeitz of Kansas City, Mo. took a 6-5 win in the second of four games in pool play. (Tribune photo/Scott Nuzum).

The Fort Scott Dragoons split their two games in the 2007 'Hound Classic baseball tournament Thursday night, beating the Springfield (Mo.) Generals 5-1 in the first game but dropping a 6-5 decision to the MacNSeitz baseball academy team in the nightcap.

The Dragoons have today off while eight games are played at Lions Field and Ty Cullor Field. They will play in two games Saturday and one on Sunday. All of Sunday's games will determine the order of finish in the tournament.

In other games, Pittsburg's American Legion AAA team also split, winning over Gardner 14-1 and losing to Khaos Blue of Denver 6-5.

In Fort Scott's opener, the Dragoons committed only one error behind pitcher John Leek, who allowed no earned runs on five hits and two walks while striking out three in a complete-game effort. Denton Ramsey went two for three on offense and drove in three runs. Leek and Cole Pruitt were also two for three at the plate.

Fort Scott scored three runs in bottom of the first inning. Dillon Knopp walked with one out and Leek singled to left. Jordan Renfro's single fell in short right field, scoring Knopp. Dakota Hall followed with a bunt single and Ramsey lashed a two-out, two-run single to right.

Pruitt led off the fourth with a single to center and moved to second on a passed ball, scoring from there on Ramsey's single. Ramsey advance to second when the center fielder's throw to home plate sailed to the backstop. He moved to third on a ground out. Alex Bowman was hit by a pitch, and then stole second. A bad throw on him allowed Ramsey to score.

The Dragoons never led their second game, played against students at a Kansas City, Mo., academy that is owned by former Kansas City Royals Mike MacFarlane and Kevin Seitzer. The difference came in the top of the fourth inning when the Indians dropped a pair of bunts, had a couple of infield singles and took advantage of two Fort Scott errors to score three runs.

Fort Scott scored a run in the bottom of the fourth when the Indians' pitcher, Nathan Bacon, struggled with his control, walking two batters, then hitting two, all with one out. The last one to take one for the team was Pruitt, who forced home Ramsey as the bases were loaded. MacNSeitz was able to avoid further trouble by turning an inning-ending double play.

The Indians scored single runs in the next two innings to boost the lead to 5-1. But Ramsey led off the bottom of the sixth with a double and scored when Pruitt reached base on a two-out error. Another error allowed Mikey Karleskint to reach and Renfro walked to load the bases. Bowman followed up with a single to center that scored Pruitt and Karleskint to bring the Dragoons within 5-4.

Back-to-back doubles scored an insurance run for MacNSeitz in the top of the seventh. It turned out to be needed as Leek reached on an error to lead off the seventh, moved to second on a passed ball, advanced on a groundout to second and scored on Cody Kramer's groundout to short.

MacNSeitz leads Pool B and plays twice today, against Springfield at 1 p.m. and Khaos Gold at 8.

Fort Scott will not play again until 12:30 Saturday afternoon against Khaos Gold at Ty Cullor Field. The Dragoons will play their last pool game at 3 Saturday against Lee's Summit, Mo.

Sunday's schedule is not set in stone, although there is a preliminary schedule that has the first-place teams from each pool meeting at 12:30. If the two Khaos teams win their pools, the championship game could be held at 10 a.m. so they can return home early.

NOTES -- In order to accomdate some of the teams' travel plans, the schedule seen here may be subject to change as it was last night when the Dragoons were moved to Ty Cullor Field for their late game with MacNSeitz and pushed back 90 minutes. The Pittsburg-Gardner game was moved to Lions Field and started at 6....

Karleskint had a busier day than the rest of the Dragoons. Not only did he play in both tournament games but he also played in a Junior Babe Ruth League game at Ty Cullor in between....

Ramsey, in addition to his hitting in game one, ended the Springfield half of the fifth with an example of good concentraton on defense. With two out and two runners on, Tyler Gooiu lofted a fly ball to left. Ramsey slipped and fell as he was tracking the ball but never took his eye off of it and managed to stand back up and make the catch to end the inning....

The tournament is a fundraiser for Fort Scott Community College's baseball program....

Game One

Springfield, Mo... 000 010 0 -- 1 5 3

Fort Scott........... 300 200 x -- 5 8 1

WP -- Leek. LP -- Lemeister.

Game Two

MacNSeitz.......... 000 311 1 -- 6 14 4

Fort Scott........... 000 103 1 -- 5 5 3

WP -- Bacon. LP -- Pruitt. Sv. -- Daniels.

POOL STANDINGS

(L) -- Game at Lions Field.

(TC) -- Game at Ty Culor Field.

Thursday, June 14

Fort Scott 5, Springfield 1

MacNSeitz 6, Fort Scott 5

Pittsburg 14, Gardner 1

Khaos Blue 6, Pittsburg, 5

Friday, June 15

Gardner vs. Topeka, 10 a.m. (L)

Lee's Summit vs. Springfield, 10 a.m. (TC)

Pittsburg vs. Old School Baseball, 12:30 (L)

MacNSeitz vs. Springfield, 1 (TC)

Gardner vs. Khaos Blue, 3 (L)

Topeka vs. Old School, 4 (TC)

Lee's Summit vs. Khaos Gold, 5:30 (L)

Khaos Gold vs. MacNSeitz, 8 (L)

Saturday, June 16

Springfield vs. Khaos Gold, 10 a.m. (L)

Topeka vs. Pittsburg, 10 a.m. (TC)

Old School vs. Khaos Blue, 12:30 (L)

Khaos Gold vs. Fort Scott, 12:30 (TC)

Lee's Summit vs. Fort Scott, 3 (L)

Old School vs. Gardner, 4 (TC)

MacNSeitz vs. Lee's Summit, 5:30 (L)

Khaos Blue vs. Topeka, 8 (L)

Sunday, June 17

Games at 10 a.m., 12:30 and 3 p.m. (Lions Park only at 3 p.m.).