By Dustin Armbruster
Hays Post Sports
HAYS - Hays High completed their three game Western Athletic Conference series with Great Bend on Tuesday with a doubleheader.
The Indians defeated the Panthers in Great Bend 6-4 at the end of March.
Game 1
Great Bend 15 - Hays 3
Great Bend scored seven of their fifteen on two swings as the Panthers defeat Hays 15-3 in the first game.
Great Bend scored five runs in the first inning. They recorded five hits in the half inning with four of them being for extra bases. A three-run homer by Kale Kern put the score at 5-0.
Hays pushed a run across in the bottom of the first inning. Kal Lonsdale scored on a single by Brett Rhoades. The Panthers answered back with a run in the top of the second for a 5-1 score.
Paxton Shaw hit the Indians' first home run of the season. A two run opposite field shot made the scored 6-3 in the bottom of the third. It was the closest Hays would get rest of the game.
Great Bend's Koehn Ribordy nailed a grand slam home run for four of the five runs in the top of the fourth. The Panthers capped the scoring with four more runs in the top of the fifth for the final of 15-3.
Lonsdale recorded two of the Indians' five hits. Great Bend had 14 hits, six for extra bases.
Rhoades (2-3) took the loss on a his shortest outing of the season of just four innings. Jakob Sloan pitched the fifth for Hays.
Highlights
Game 2
Great Bend 7 - Hays 3
Great Bend used two more home runs to break open a tie game in a 7-3 victory of Hays in the second game.
The Panthers took the lead in the top half of the second on an RBI single with two outs in the inning. Hays tied the game up in the bottom of the third. Jarek Purdy was hit by a pitch to open the inning. Nash Kaiser followed with a single to put runners two on with nobody out. Purdy stole third to set up the Indians first run. The Great Bend pitcher tried to pick off Kaiser at first after which a throw from the first baseman sailed high allowing Purdy to tie the game at one.
Hays had chances with a runner in scoring position in each the third and fourth inning but failed to take the lead.
The first four batters of the fifth inning all safely reached on hits for Great Bend. A pair of singles, a double and three-run homerun gave the Panthers a 5-1 advantage. Hays did get a run back in the sixth and had a chance to add more.
The Indians loaded the bases with one out on a pair of walks and hit batter. Great Bend changed pitchers and needed just three pitches to get out of the jam. A sacrifice fly by Purdy scored Kaleb Roe who was running for Jace Dreher and closed the gap down to 5-2 at the end of the sixth.
The Panthers again unloaded a home run to provide two insurance runs. This time on a pinch-hit homer to make the score 7-2. Hays scored on in the bottom of the seventh. Lonsdale led off with a double and then later scored on a throwing error for the 7-2 final.
Highlights
Paxton Shaw worked a season long five inning and threw 102 pitching while taking the loss. Beau Dreiling provided the last two innings of work.
Hays heads to Dodge City in a week to conclude their three game series with the Red Demons.