Hays Post
LIBERAL - The Hays High baseball team swept Liberal on the road Friday in the first Western Athletic Conference games of the season for both teams.
Game 1: Hays 1, Liberal 0 (8 innings)
Hays High took the opening game on Friday after scoring in the top of the eight inning on a Redskin balk for a 1-0 victory.
Nolan Dreher pitched 7 1/2d innings of scoreless baseball before giving way to Tanner Boxberger who shut the door on Liberal. Dreher (1-0) allowed just three hits while striking out 11 and walking two in his first appearance of the season. Boxberger earned the save in his second appearance of the year.
Neither team scored for the first seven innings. Dreher didn't allow a baserunner until the fourth inning. Hays put two on in the first inning, had a runner in the second and a runner in scoring position in the third but couldn't take advantage against last season's Player of the Year in the WAC, Brooks Kappelmann.
Liberal put two on in the fourth inning before Dreher struck out the next two players. Neither team threatened to score until Liberal had a chance in the bottom of the seventh. The Redskins led the inning off with a double but Hays turned a double play by shortstop Cooper Sanders, first baseman Lex Lummus and third baseman Carter Graham.
Johnny Cano singled with one out in the top of the eighth inning then stole second base. He then advanced to third on a ground out. With two outs in the inning Kappelmann was lifted at pitcher after hitting the pitch limit. The relief pitcher for Liberal was charged with a balk allowing Cano to score what proved to be the winning run.
Liberal had a chance to tie in the bottom of the eighth. The Redskins opened the inning with a single. Dreher left the game one batter later due to hitting the pitch limit. Boxberger struck out the first batter he faced before walking the next. Runners were at first and second base when Boxberger picked off the runner at first to end the game.
Hays recorded just four hits in the game. Two of those came from Lex Lummus.
Game 2: Hays 16, Liberal 1 (5 innings)
Eight different players scored at least a run for HHS and nine reached safely at least once in the victory. Hays and Liberal each scored a single run in the first inning. The Indians took the lead for good in the top of the second with a single tally.
Hays would score three runs in the third and fourth innings then eight in the fifth. During the fifth inning Hays recorded six hits. Liberal had five errors.
Cooper Sanders scored three runs while Tiger Johnson drove in three. Ian McGuire and Johnny Cano each recorded doubles. Johnson hit the Indians first homerun of the season.
Carter Graham worked all five innings in the game on the mound in his first appearance this season. Graham(1-0) allowed one run on three hits while striking out five and walking one.
Liberal used four different pitchers. Each of them gave up at least three runs.
Hays improves to 4-0, 2-0 while Liberal falls to 2-2, 0-2. The Indians return to action on April 2nd when they travel to Topeka to take on Washburn Rural.