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'Hounds split with Allen County
Fort Scott Community College split a Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division doubleheader with Allen County Saturday at Lions Field, which gave the Greyhounds three wins in two days and allowed them to leapfrog from fifth place to third in the division standings.
The Greyhounds won the first game 4-3 but dropped the second one 8-1. Just about any coach will tell you that if you're going to split a doubleheader, it just feels better to win the second game.
"If I had a choice, which I don't, to win the last one heading into a couple of days off makes you feel a little bit better," Fort Scott head coach John Hill said. "But also, The reverse of that is we don't get too high. It brings us back down to reality a little bit and reminds us we have to play good, fundamental baseball to be successful."
However, the Saturday split, along with Friday's sweep of Coffeyville, moved Fort Scott from fifth place in the East to third. Going into Monday, the 'Hounds (10-6, 17-13) had the same number of victories as division leader Johnson County (10-2, 24-5), which will come to town for a 1 p.m. doubleheader this afternoon at Lions Field.
Cowley (14-4, 23-9) was in second place based on winning percentage although, technically, the Tigers are a game ahead of Johnson County.
A five-run fifth inning opened the flood gates for Allen County (9-6, 17-10) in the second game. Two Greyhound errors helped the Red Devils break open what had been a scoreless game.
Every Devil run in that inning was unearned
"We have to field the ball and execute offensively, which are two things we did not do in the second game," Hill said. "Which made our pitching look worse than what it was."
The 'Hounds once again had trouble bringing runners home once they got on base. Even though they swept Coffeyville Friday, the Greyhounds stranded 16 runners. They left seven on base in this game.
"Early in the game (the first inning), we had a runner on third and no one out," Hill said. "And we had two poor at-bats with groundouts to the third baseman and another bad at-bat, all three from out key RBI guys, 2-3-4 in the lineup. We also had missed signs and we had a very sloppy second game."
Travis Cruz was the only Greyhound with multiple hits, going two for three.
Allen County held a 2-1 lead going into the bottom of the sixth inning of the second game. Cruz started the rally by hitting safely to right field, then stealing second. Zach Higgins drew a walk and the 'Hounds executed a double steal.
Cullen Baxter grounded to the pitcher and Cruz got caught in a rundown. But he stayed in it long enough to allow the runners to get an extra base. Higgins scored when Allen County's right fielder dropped Kian Jost's fly ball. Baxter put the 'Hounds ahead when Adam Johnston singled to short right-center. And Jost scored a needed insurance run when John Leek hit a ball that the Devils were not able to make a play on.
"In the first game, we did everything right," Hill said. "We pitched very well. We fielded it well. And we stayed within ourselves. Then in the sixth inning, good things happened for us. And that's junior college baseball. We let them fall apart in that sixth inning and we took advantage of it."
Mitch Albright picked up his third save in two days, although it was more difficult this time. Albright struck out Dillon Hazlett and catcher Zach Juliano threw to second to get Bretton Ater caught in a rundown for a double play for the first two outs of the inning. But Seth Dutton doubled in a run to make it 4-3 and William Reddick singled to put runners on first and third before Albright got Josh ward to fly to right to end the game.
Johnston had two of Fort Scott's four hits. Allen County had 11 hits with Dutton and Ward each collecting two.
Game One
Allen County. 000 110 1 -- 3 11 2
Fort Scott...... 001 003 x -- 4 4 1
WP --Green (2-0). LP -- Ormiston Sv. -- Albright (6).
HR -- none.
Game Two
Allen County. 000 052 1 -- 8 11 0
Fort Scott...... 000 010 0 -- 1 5 2
WP -- Thompson. LP -- Weinandt (3-3).
HR -- none.