Greyhounds split at Allen, keep lead in East

IOLA – No. 20 Fort Scott split a Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division doubleheader here Saturday but that was enough to keep the Greyhounds in the lead by themselves in the division.

Allen won the opener, 5-4, in the bottom of the seventh but the Greyhounds took the second game, 9-5.

Fort Scott (15-5 East, 27-8 overall) scored first when Danny Crews’ first-inning single to right scored Will Baker. Allen’s Sky-lar Culver tied the game when he led off the bottom of the second with his 12th home run of the season.

The ’Hounds reclaimed the lead in the top of the third. Brandon Krennrich drew a leadoff walk and scored on Sean Moore’s double. Moore scored later in the inning on a double by Andrew Morrow.

The Red Devils (13-7, 27-10) scored 3 in the bottom of the third to go ahead, 4-3. Aaron Mason scored on a passed ball. Roberto Enriquez came home on a groundout. Then Matt Phipps singled to center to score Nathan Best.

Fort Scott tied the game in the top of the sixth when Baker scored on a line-drive up the middle by Crews.

Enriquez led off the the bottom of the seventh with a double. He moved to third on a groundout before the next two batters were walked to load the bases.

Nathan Miller (4-3) got Nate Williams to strike out swinging for the second out. But Cody Wolfe hit a single to right field to score Enriquez with the winning run.

Crews went 2 for 3 for the Greyhounds while Baker was 2 for 3 and Morrow went 2 for 4.

Allen led the second game 5-1 after three innings with Fort Scott’s only run coming in on Crews’ 2-out double in the top of the first, which brought Ben McConnell home.

Fort Scott began to rally in the fourth, scoring both runs on Quinn Waterbury’s 8th homer of the season with 2 out and Moore on first. The Greyhounds added 4 in the next inning to take the lead, 7-5.

McConnell singled with one out and Krennrich drew a walk. Crews drove in McConnell with a line drive by the shortstop. Moore doubled to center to scored Krennrich with the tying run and Crews with the go-ahead tally. Morrow followed with another base hit to score Moore.

Insurance runs went up in the seventh. Krennrich and Crews hit back-to-back singles to begin the inning. Moore bunted and reached base on an error, which allowed Krennrich to score. Crews scored later on a groundout.

Allen got two runners on after two out in the bottom of the seventh but Miller got Ryan Previl to pop out to second to end the threat.

Kobie Schmitt came on in the eighth. He hit a batter in each inning he pitched but no other baserunners got on against him.

Avery Boehm (1-0) was the winning pitcher as the first of three relievers. He pitched the fourth and fifth innings, allowing 1 hit and 2 walks while striking out 3. Miller pitched the sixth and seventh, walking one batter. Schmitt, who was unable to earn a save as the margin was too great (4 runs) when he entered the game, struck out one batter in his 2 innings.

The Greyhounds made a loser of Jake Butterfield (6-2) for just the second time this season. They got 10 hits off of him, leading to 7 runs, in 4 1/3 innings. He walked one and struck out 5.

Crews went 4 for 5 in this game while Baker, McConnell and Moore were each 2 for 5.

Fort Scott enters this weekend’s series with Neosho County one game ahead of Johnson County (14-6, 27-9) in the East. The Cavaliers moved past Allen by sweeping last-place Labette on Saturday. Allen is now in a three-way tie for third with Kansas City Kansas (23-12 overall) and Cowley (23-14). Neosho County (11-9, 22-13) moved over the .500 mark in conference play and is four games behind the ’Hounds. The Panthers swept Coffeyville on Saturday.

Thursday’s doubleheaders have Neosho County facing Fort Scott at Lions Field at 1 p.m., Allen at Kansas City, Highland at Johnson County and Cowley at Labette. Each series swaps sites on Saturday with Fort Scott going to Neosho, KCK to Allen, Johnson to Highland and Labette to Cowley.

Fort Scott was scheduled to face the Baker University junior varsity at Baldwin City on Tuesday but those games were cancelled.

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Game One

Fort Scott.......................... 102 001 0 — 4 12 0

Allen.................................... 013 000 1 — 5 8 0

Two out when winning run scored.

WP — Bond (2-1). LP — Miller (4-3).

HR — Allen: Culver (12, 2nd inn., none on, none out).

Game Two

Fort Scott..................... 100 240 200 — 9 15 1

Allen.............................. 302 000 000 — 5 5 2

WP — Boehm (1-0). LP — Butterfield (6-2).

HR — Fort Scott: Waterbury (8, 4th inn., 1 on, 2 out).