By GERARD WELLBROCK
Hays Post
WICHITA – The Hays Larks took advantage of nine walks and five hit batters and beat the Seattle (WA) Blackfish 16-3 in five innings to close out pool play at the 89th National Baseball Congress World Series at Eck Stadium Tuesday night.
The Larks (39-7) sent 16 batters to the plate and scored 11 runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. The Larks drew four walks and had three batters hit by pitch, all of which scored. Lenny Ashby had a two-run single and Austen Jaslove a three-run single.
The Blackfins (20-14) loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the first but failed to score.
The Larks then struck for three in the bottom of the inning. Tyler LaRue drove a double to the gap in left field which scored Damian Ruiz who singled and Lenny Ashby who walked earlier in the inning. LaRue would later score on a wild pitch to give the Larks a 3-0 lead.
They pushed the lead to 5-0 when Garrett Gruell and Austen Jaslove were hit by pitch with bases loaded.
Seattle scored three runs on four singles in the top of the fourth to pull within 5-3.
Dayne Pengelly (3-0) allowed three runs on seven hits with one strikeout and no walks over four innings and picked up the win. Kam Walton struck out two in the fifth.
The Larks close pool play 2-1 and are the No. 2 seed out of pool D.
The Hutchinson Monarchs won pool D and receives a by into Thursday’s quarterfinal.
UP NEXT
The Larks will play the Five Tool (TX) Kraken in the first round of single-elimination bracket play Wednesday night at 6:00 p.m.. The Kraken lost 17-8 to the Great Bend Bat Cats and finished third in pool B.