Hays Post Sports
Great Bend, KS - Hays High (6-2, 5-1) split with Great Bend (9-2, 4-2) on Tuesday to take the season series over the state ranked Panthers two games to one.
Game 1 - Hays High 4, Great Bend 2
Carter Graham hit a three run homerun on the top of the seventh inning to lift Hays High to a 4-2 lead over Great Bend in the first game of the doubleheader.
Each team tallied a single run in the fourth inning. Graham led off with a single and moved to second in a single by Trace Jacobs. Jalen Smith loaded the bases with a third single in the inning. Graham gave Hays a 1-0 lead on a passed ball.
Great Bend got the run back with a walk, double, and ground out. The Panthers then took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth inning with a run scoring double. Tiger Johnson got out of a bases loaded jam to limit the damage.
Johnny Cano was hit by a pitch with two outs in the top of the seventh. Johnson followed that up with a single before Graham's heroics gave the Indians a 4-2 lead.
Graham then took over with a runner aboard in the seventh to earn the save with a double play and fly out. Johnson (2-0) took the victory allowing two runs on four hits over six innings. He walked four and struck out one.
Game 2 - Great Bend 10, Hays 3
The second game started well for Hays High but they couldn't continue the momentum from game one. Jonny Cano and Landon Hardman scored in the top of the first inning. Great Bend countered with three in the home half of the same inning and three more in the second for a 6-2 lead.
The Panthers added four in the bottom of the sixth for a 10-2 score. Hays added their only other run in the top of the seventh.
Hays had five hits in the second game. Graham (1-1) took the loss. He allowed six runs, five earned, on seven hits with one walk and two strikeouts in just an inning and two thirds. Brett Rhoades pitched the remainder of the game giving up four runs on one hit. He struck out six and walked two.
Hays heads to Clay Center on Thursday for a doubleheader.