12th-seeded 'Hounds score upset in tourney

Saturday, May 9, 2015

WICHITA -- Fort Scott Community College's post-season run as a low seed in the Region VI Baseball Tournament continued Friday as the 12th-seeded Greyhounds stunned fourth-seeded (and the No. 4 team in the national poll) Johnson County, 5-3, in the first round of bracket play at Lawrence Dumont Stadium Friday afternoon.

The Greyhounds (31-27) went on the road and swept fifth-seeded Hutchinson last weekend. Here Friday, they gave the Cavaliers just their 10th loss of the season by a 5-3 score. Johnson County (48-10) had won 21 of its previous 22 games.

This was Fort Scott's first victory in finals play at Wichita since 2009, when the 'Hounds beat Hutchinson in an elimination bracket game.

The 'Hounds scored 4 runs in the top of the first inning. Trey Hair singled to right field to lead off the game. Then Jedd Andrade hit a line-drive single. With 2 out, Nick Banman drove in Hair with a single. Jake Harvey drew a walk. Nathan Methvin singled to right to plate Andrade and Banman. Harved moved to third on the play and scored on Dalton Rook's single to center.

Hair walked to lead off the second and scored on Kaden Shaffer's double to make it 5-0. Johnson County got its only runs in the bottom half of the inning on a 3-run home run by Shea Stine, which was one of just 5 hits the Cavs had in the game.

From that point, Fort Scott relied on its pitching and defense.

Johnson County loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth with 2 out but reliever Matt Peterson (5-3) got Alec Alvarez to fly out to left, ending the inning.

Peterson found himself in trouble in the bottom of the eighth as the bases became loaded again with 2 outs. This time, he got Ben Calvano to ground out. Peterson struck out the first two batters of the ninth inning and got Andrew Warner to pop out to catcher Harvey to end the game.

Peterson walked 6 batters and hit another but didn't allow a hit in the 4 2/3 innings he pitched. He struck out 3 batters. Starter Matt Hicks allowed 5 hits and 2 walks in 4 1/3 innings.

Andrade went 3 for 5 for Fort Scott while Hair was 2 for 4.

Fort Scott plays at 4 p.m. today -- provided the weather holds up -- in the winners' bracket semifinals against another upset winner, eighth-seeded Coffeyville. The Red Ravens (32-25) sent Jayhawk Conference-Western Division champion Seward County to the elimination bracket by scoring 5 times in the top of the 14th inning for a 7-2 victory.

In the third game of the day, third-seeded Dodge City defeated Neosho County, 5-2. Although the Conquistadors (38-17) were the lower seed, Neosho County came into the game ranked 18th in the nation and with 42 victories.

The final game of the night, between second-seeded Cowley and seventh-seeded Butler, began about 2 1/2 hours after its original 7 p.m. start time due in part to the 14-inning game at the beginning of the day and a lengthy weather delay during the Neosho County-Dodge City game.

The complete tournament schedule can be seen beneath the "Scoreboard" banner at the bottom of this page.


Game One

(8) Coffeyville... 100 000 001 000 05 -- 7 11 3

(1) Seward County... 001 001 000 000 00 -- 2 9 1

WP -- Jones (7-5). LP -- Hernandez (3-2).

HR -- None.

Game Two

(12) Fort Scott........... 410 000 000 -- 5 10 0

(4) Johnson County. 030 000 000 -- 3 5 0

WP -- Peterson (5-3). LP -- McHugh (5-2).

HR -- Johnson County: Stine (5, 2nd inn., 2 on, 1 out).