Greyhounds drop pair, to back of playoff pack

Friday, April 27, 2007
Fort Scott first baseman Kenny Maus gets props from teammate Trevor Geist after he hit a three-run home run in the fifth inning of the second game of a doubleheader with Kansas City Kansas Thursday at Lions Field. The homer gave the Greyhounds a 6-4 lead at the time but KCK scored four in the sixth and went on to a sweep of the doubleheader by 8-7 and 8-6 scores. (Captured Images/Kenny Felt)

In the midst of the hunt for home-field advantage in the upcoming Region VI Tournament, this was not what Fort Scott Community College's baseball team needed.

The Greyhounds were in third place in the Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division when the day started. But then they were swept by Kansas City Kansas by scores of 8-6 and 8-7 in a conference doubleheader Thursday and fell into a tie for sixth place with Allen County, a team they will face for a pair in Iola in the final games of the conference season Saturday afternoon.

Cowley has completed its league schedule and is the division champ. Kansas City, with one make-up game remaining against Labette, improved to 21-14 in the division and 35-18 overall. The Blue Devils leaped up from a tie for fourth with two other teams and over the Greyhounds and Johnson County into second place. Johnson County, 18-12, was idle Thursday but has six games remaining, including a pair of make-up games today at Coffeyville and a make-up twinbill at Highland Sunday.

Every team from KCK on down to eighth-place Coffeyville 17-15, 21-17, is in contention for the three remaining home-field slots in the Region VI Tournament. The top eight teams in each KJCCC division qualify (all eight Western Division berths have been filled because Barton County is on probation and ineligible for the tournament; those teams are merely jockeying for seeding). The top four in each division play host to a best-of-three first-round series against one of the bottom four from the opposite division. The winners of the first-round series go on to double-elimination play in Wichita.

It's probably safe to say the eight Eastern Division qualifiers have been sorted out. Even with four games still to play, ninth-place Highland, 5-27, 10-37, is 12 games behind the Red Ravens for the final playoff berth.

If the fourth seed (or any seed for that matter) comes down to a tiebreaker between FSCC and KCK, the Blue Devils would win it as they swept the season series four games to none.

It was probably a sign that things weren't going to go quite right for the Greyhounds, 19-15, 30-21, when they discovered Thursday morning that there was a hole in the infield tarp and the area around first base was waterlogged. But they fixed things up and didn't have to put off the games, not even for a few minutes.

But things got off to a rough start on the field as well as a solo home run by Kyle Jones helped the Blue Devils take a 2-0 lead after a half-inning of play. The 'Hounds got those runs right back in the bottom half. Zach Caldwell drew a walk, then moved to second on a passed ball.

Brandt Barnes grounded to the third baseman, who tried to catch Caldwell coming off second. KCK's shortstop dropped the throw and all runners were safe. Lawson Hipps' two-out double brought both men home.

The Greyhounds put up four runs in the third to take a 6-2 lead. Barnes led off the inning with a home run. Clay Cuno reached on an error and Trevor Geist knocked one off the pitcher for a hit.

Hipps singled in Cuno with Geist reaching third on the play. Tyler Cox dropped a single into shallow right, which brought Geist in. Lawson got to third on the play.

Tommy Fitzgerald sacrificed Cox to second. Kenny Maus brought Hipps home on a fielder's choice.

Greyhound pitcher Dan Huff, who recovered from his rough first inning to pitch well in the second and third, found trouble again in the fourth. Two walks, a sacrifice bunt, a single and a three-run home run by Tom Myers contributed to a four-run inning by KCK that tied the score at 6-6.

The Devils broke the tie in the top of the seventh, when they scored two runs, one coming home when Myers belted second home run of the day.

Fort Scott showed it had something left in the bottom of the seventh as Geist led off with a home run. Hipps reached on a single. But KCK pitcher Keith Spreckles struck out the next batter and got the final two to fly out to center to preserve the win.

Hipps went four for four for the Greyhounds. Geist and Barnes were each two for four. Jones was three for four for KCK while Myers went two for four and Derek Ezell was two for two.

Spreckles managed to go the distance despite allowing four earned runs on 13 hits. He walked one and struck out five. Huff allowed six runs on nine hits and three walks in six innings.

Zach Shellenberger pitches to a KCK batter during the third inning of the second game. Shellenberger took the loss when the Blue Devils scored four runs in the sixth. (Captured Images/Kenny Felt)

KCK held a 3-0 lead after three innings of the second game and made it 4-0 in its half of the fourth. Fort Scott scored six in the bottom of the inning on six hits.

Geist led off the inning with a single to right and Fitzgerald followed with a double. Cox drove in Geist with a single to left and Kenny Maus bashed a three-run homer to tie the score.

Brandon Lessnau singled and moved to second on Caldwell's sacrifice bunt. Barnes drew a walk as did Hipps with one out. Geist came up for the second time in the inning and drove in Lessnau and Barnes.

But KCK used five singles off two Fort Scott pitchers in the top of the sixth to go back in front for good, 8-6.

Geist was two for two for the Greyhounds whole Maus and Cox each went two for three. Brett Hutton had three hits for KCK, including a solo homer in the second inning. Mike Sharp was two for three, belting a two-run homer in the third.

Brennen Auerbach was the winning pitcher, even though he allowed nine hits and three walks and struck out only two as he went the distance. Zach Shellenberger, 4-3, allowed eight runs -- seven earned -- on eight hits and two walks with four strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.

Fort Scott's games on Saturday will be very important for both teams in the fight for home field. The Red Devils swept a doubleheader at Fort Scott April 14 and just a split will give them a tiebreaker. The Greyhounds need to sweep in order to force the tiebreaker to go to another hopefully favorable step.

Saturday's doubleheader will also be the last in conference play for Allen County, 19-15, 29-18. The first game is scheduled for 1 p.m.

NOTES -- We erred in saying Tuesday's rained-out game with Crowder, Mo. would be made up Monday at Neosho, Mo. Instead, the game will be played Sunday at 2 p.m. at Lions Field. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused. This will be the last game of the regular season for the Greyhounds as they cancelled a doubleheader with Longview, Mo. that was scheduled for Tuesday.….

Some conference teams have games to make up that haven't been rescheduled, at least not according to the KJCCC web site. Kansas City and Labette have to make up one game against each other. Coffeyville and Johnson County need to play a second doubleheader in addition to the one noted at Overland Park today. Presumably, these games would be played sometime between Monday and Thursday as the Region VI Tournament begins May 5….

Independence and Neosho County were scheduled to play three games Thursday while Highland played three against two opponents.

Indy and Neosho were to first comple a game that was suspended earlier this season at Independence. However the field at Chanute was unplayable both yesterday and today, so they will try to play their double-and-a-half-header Saturday.

Meanwhile, Highland went to Coffeyville to play a scheduled doubleheader. Then after that was finished, Highland finished a suspended game with Cowley on Coffeyville's field. The Scotties lost all three games…

Game One

Kansas City........ 200 040 2 -- 8 11 2

Fort Scott......... 204 000 1 -- 7 13 0

WP -- Spreckles. LP -- Little (4-4).

HR -- Kansas City: Jones (1st inn., none on, none out), Myers 2 (5th inn., one on, one out and 7th inn., nne on, two out). Fort Scott: Barnes (3, 3rd inn., none on, none out), Geist (4, 7th inn., none on, none out).

Game Two

Kansas City........ 012 014 0 -- 8 10 1

Fort Scott......... 000 060 0 -- 6 9 1

WP -- Auerbach. LP -- Shellenberger (4-3).

HR -- Kansas City: Hutton (2nd inn., none on, none out), Sharp (3rd inn., one on, two out). Fort Scott: Maus (1, 5th inn., two on, none out).