Hays Post Sports
GARDEN CITY - The Hays High baseball team improved to 5-1 Friday with a doubleheader sweep of Garden City at Clint Lightner Field. The Indians won the opener 9-3 then took the nightcap 9-5 and are now 5-1 overall and 4-0 in the Western Athletics Conference.
The Indians are back on the road Tuesday for a doubleheader in Great Bend.
Game 1: Hays 9, Garden City 3
The Indians scored seven runs in the fourth inning to erase a 2-1 deficit. Brett Rhoades and Jalen Smith opened the inning with back-to-back singles. With one out, Ian McGuire drove in the first run with a single. Landon Hardman added a two-run double to push the lead to 4-2. Following a walk to Johnny Cano, Cooper Johnson singled to right field which scored Hardman. Cano scored on an error on the same play. Back-to-back walks scored Johnson. Carter Graham scored the final run of the inning on a wild pitch.
Jalen Smith allowed three runs on five hits with four walks and no strikeouts and picked up the win.
Game 2: Hays 9, Garden City 5
Carter Graham had four hits and drove in five runs. He doubled in the second which scored two runs, singled in the fifth which drove in a run then knocked in two more with a single in the seventh.
The Indians grabbed the early lead on a Jalen Smith RBI single in the first. Garden City scored four in the bottom of the inning to take the lead only to see HHS answer with four in the top of the second. Johnny Cano drove in the first run with a sacrifice bunt. Graham's double tied the game 4-4. He scored the go-ahead run on a Brett Rhoades groundout.
The Buffaloes scored a run in the third but Hays added single runs in the fourth and fifth then tacked on two in the top of the seventh.
Johnny Cano pitched four hitless innings of relief with five strikeouts and no walks and picked up the win.