HAYS, Kan. -- The Washburn baseball team captured its third-straight series victory after winning game one of Saturday's doubleheader at Fort Hays, 8-5, before narrowly falling in game two, 5-4. Washburn will return home for its final home series of the season with three games against Newman starting Friday, April 30.
GAME ONE (Washburn 8, Fort Hays State 5)
The Ichabods grabbed a 4-0 lead in the third inning.
Wyatt Featherston led off the frame with a double down the left field line and then moved down to third on
Xavier De Leon's bunt single. A few pitches later, De Leon swiped second base to set Washburn up with two runners in scoring position.
Eric Hinostroza put the Ichabods on the board with an RBI single through the right side and moved De Leon up to third. A throwing error committed by the Tigers' third baseman allowed
Brett Ingram to reach first safely and score De Leon. With one out after Ingram was caught stealing,
Zion Bowlin launched a two-run homer to cap off the four-run inning.
The Tigers responded in the home half of the third with one run to make it a 4-1 game.
The score remained the same until Washburn led off the top of the seventh with back-to-back singles and both runners moved up on Ingram's sacrifice bunt. De Leon tagged up on Bowlin's sac fly to push Washburn's lead to 5-1.
Peter Shearer reached first after being hit by the pitch and then
Cole Emerson cleared the bases with a three-run bomb over the fence in right field for his first career homer.
Fort Hays scored an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh and then added three more an inning later on two home runs to cut the deficit to 8-5.
That would be as close as it would get for the Tigers as
Braden Minor came in to close out the game with an efficient 1-2-3 inning.
Hinostroza finished the game 3-4 at the plate and drove in a run and scored twice. Bowlin totaled three RBI. Featherston had two doubles and scored once.
Brock Gilliam moved to 6-2 on the season after going six innings and allowing one earned run on four hits and two walks to go with six strikeouts. Minor earned his first save of the season and struck out one in his 12 pitch ninth inning.
GAME TWO (Fort Hays State 5, Washburn 4)
Fort Hays (9-22, 9-18 MIAA) got the scoring started in a hurry and went up 1-0 on the second pitch of the first inning with a home run.
The Ichabods (14-19, 13-14 MIAA) responded with a solo homer of their own in the fourth inning as Bowlin tied up the game with one swing of the bat.
An inning later,
Kros Bay reached first after getting hit by the pitch and then advanced to second on a balk. With two outs, De Leon singled to right center to bring home Bay and give Washburn its first lead of the game.
Fort Hays reclaimed the lead with two runs on three hits in the bottom of the seventh inning. The Tigers tacked on two more runs in the eighth to extend their lead to 5-2.
Down to their final three outs and needing three runs to at least tie the game, the Ichabods put together a late rally in the ninth. Emerson drew a leadoff walk and then scored on Bay's triple. With one out, Featherston singled through the left side to make it a one run game. De Leon kept the line moving with a double to put runners on second and third. The Tigers got an out on a fielder's choice at home plate and then recorded the final out on a groundout.
Bowlin was 3-4 at the dish and notched his fifth home run of the season. De Leon also had three hits and drove in a run. Bay finished 2-3 with two runs scored and an RBI.
