Fort Scott sophomore Mikey Karleskint pitches to a Labette County batter during the fourth inning of the first game of a Southeast Kansas League doubleheader at Ty Cullor Field Tuesday afternoon. Karleskint pitched 7 1/3 strong innings to help the Tigers take a 1-0 win in nine innings in game one. The Tigers completed the sweep with a 5-4 win in the nightcap. (Captured Images/Kenny Felt)

Fort Scott High School's Southeast Kansas League doubleheader against Labette County at Ty Cullor Field Tuesday night was chock full of drama with the opener going nine innings and the Grizzlies' attempting to rally from a five-run deficit in the seventh inning of the nightcap.

Fortunately, the Tigers won both games, taking 1-0 and 5-4 wins to climb into a tie with Coffeyville for third place in the league. Fort Scott and Coffeyville are both 5-5 in the SEK. The Tigers are 6-7 overall, while Coffeyville was 8-6 going into Tuesday's doubleheader with Parsons.

"Drama is the truth," Fort Scott head coach B.J. Pruitt said. "It seems like we never to anything easy. We have had some adversity this year. Take out the Pittsburg games and we've had (many) games decided by (one) run.

After Tuesday's sweep, the Tigers have played seven one-run games. They've now won four of them, including the first game of Monday's league doubleheader at Coffeyville. Fort Scott won that first game, 4-2, but lost the second, 7-3.

The first game of Tuesday's twinbill was a pitcher's duel in the classic sense, with Fort Scott's Mikey Karleskint going 7 1/3 innings and allowing only two hits and two walks while striking out nine. LC's Jacob Bierbrodt, a left-hander, went the distance for the Grizzlies, allowing four hits and one walk while striking out 15.

Karleskint held LCHS (4-6, 7-7) to one hit over the first seven innings. Labette County had runners on third in the second and third innings, which were its only baserunners until the seventh.

LCHS catcher Jacob Cunningham led off the second with a double. His courtesy runner, Keith Rakestan, moved to third on a passed ball. But Karleskint got two strikeouts and a pop-up to end that threat.

Davy Brown walked with one out in the third. But Karleskint got groundouts to get out of the inning. The second out came after the ball deflected off his leg and bounded almost right to second baseman Blake Nelson.

Bierbrodt had just three baserunners to worry about in the first eight innings. Karleskint singled with one out in the first. Nelson singled with two out in the third, breaking a string of five consecutive strikeouts for Bierbrodt. Alex Pemberton walked to lead off the sixth and made it to third before he was stranded there.

LCHS came dangerously close to victory in the seventh. Quentin Ybarra reached base on an error leading off the inning. He moved to second on a wild pitch. Cunningham grounded to short but Ybarra got caught in a rundown and was put out. Cunningham tried to sneak into second during the rundown but Nelson threw to third baseman Pemberton, who was covering second, for the second out. Karleskint then ended the inning with a strikeout.

LCHS tried to win again in the top of the eighth. Josh Clements walked to lead things off. Then he broke for second and was able to knock the ball out of shortstop John Leek's hand when on the slide.

Trevor Nash hit a single to right but Bryan Wielert threw to first baseman Denton Ramsey, who was the cutoff man, and he gunned down Clemens at home.

Pruitt then decided to make a pitching change and put Nelson on the mound. He got a pop up for the second out but Brown got a double to right, with Nash going to third. But Nelson induced an infield pop up to end the inning.

Nelson put the Grizzlies down in order in the ninth. Then the Tigers finally got to Bierbrodt as Nelson led off the ninth with a single to left. Karleskint bunted him over to second. Alex Bowman followed with a single to right, which the fielder overran, allowing Nelson to score the winning run.

Nelson (1-0) pitched the final 1 2/3 innings, allowed one hit and struck out one. But with the Tigers having played Monday and also set to play again Thursday, Karleskint's effort was just as important even though he didn't get the decision.

"Mikey pitched a gem of a game," Pruitt said. "He gave us what we needed, which was a quality start with a low pitch count. Our pitching has given us that all year. We've gotten a lot of great starts from a lot of guys."

The runs came a little sooner and easier to start the second game. The Tigers got an unearned run in the first as LCHS committed three errors. Nelson reached on a leadoff error, stole second, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on another error.

The second run was posted in the fourth when Leek belted his first home run of the season leading off the frame. That helped support his own cause as Leek (2-1) allowed four hits and no walks while striking out three in the first four innings on the mound.

Matt Wheeler took over on the mound in the fifth and got some more support in the bottom of the frame when Ramsey smacked a three-run homer over the right-field fence.

The drama began to build in the sixth after Leek was injured trying to field a ball near second base as the LCHS runner ran into him. It could be a week before Leek comes back with hopefully nothing more than a sprained ankle.

However, the real drama came in the seventh. LCHS got four hits, took advantage of one Tiger error and got within 5-4. Pruitt put Pemberton on the hill with two out and two on but LCHS got another hit although Wheeler's effort on a grounder close to the third-base line kept it to a single and may have saved the game from becoming tied.

Now with the bases loaded and two out, Pemberton induced a ground out to second to end the game.

"I feel like we're starting to turn a corner right now," Pruitt said. "Our pitching and defense has been solid all year. We've been kind of cold with the bats here lately. But I feel like we're starting to hit the ball well now. If we can start putting those two things together, good things will start happening."

Nelson, Leek and Ramsey each had two hits in the second game.

Monday: Fort Scott 4-3, Coffeyville 2-7.

Ramsey and Andre Davis each had two hits in the first-game victory. Pemberton (2-1) went the distance on the hill, allowing eight hits and two walks while striking out three.

Fort Scott held a 2-0 lead after the top of the first inning of the second game. But the Golden Tornado answered with three in the bottom of the inning and never looked back.

The Tigers travel to Columbus for a league doubleheader Thursday afternoon.

Tuesday

Game One

Labette County. 000 000 000 -- 0 3 1

Fort Scott...... 000 000 001 -- 1 4 2

WP -- Nelson (1-0). LP -- Bierbrodt.

HR -- none.

Game Two

Labette County.. 000 000 4 -- 4 8 3

Fort Scott.......... 100 130 x -- 5 10 1

WP -- Leek (2-1). LP -- Ybarra. Sv. -- Pemberton (1).

HR -- Fort Scott: Leek (1, 4th inn., none on, none out), Ramsey (1, 5th inn., two on, one out).

---

Monday

Game One

Fort Scott.......... 010 210 0 -- 4 9 x

Coffeyville......... 003 000 0 -- 3 8 x

WP -- Pemberton (2-1). LP -- n/a.

HR -- none.

Game Two

Fort Scott.......... 200 000 0 -- 2 6 x

Coffeyville......... 300 013 x -- 7 11 x

WP -- n/a. LP -- n/a.