After coming off a series sweep of New Mexico Highlands, the Hornets returned to action early with a midweek affair on Tuesday afternoon. They faced MIAA foe Fort Hays State and continued their strong stretch of play, beating the Tigers 12-7 in the high-scoring affair.
Starting the game for the Hornets was junior Jake Khasaempanth as the Hornets set up for a bullpen game. He started the game strong with a clean first inning of work, and the Hornet bats got going quickly, again. Junior Logan Myers led off the inning with a double and was scratched across on a sacrifice fly from junior Frankie Santiago for an early 1-0 lead.
In the second inning, the Tigers broke through on the scoreboard with the help of a Hornet error and a two-RBI single to take the lead, 2-1. The Hornets took the lead back swiftly as freshman Tyler Coffin drove in a run via a bunt single, and a Tiger wild pitch gave the Hornets a two-run inning. After a clean top of the third from the Hornet bullpen, the bats put together their biggest inning in the game.
The big inning kicked off with junior Nathon Cruz driving in a run on a single, followed by junior Dylan Brisbois’s RBI groundout to get the first two runs across. Senior Cooper Schwindt singled in another run, and to cap off the inning, freshman Evan Abbott drove in two runs on a single up the middle to make it 8-2 Hornets.
Fort Hays, over the next two innings, began to mount a comeback effort by scoring two runs to make it 8-4. The Hornets were having none of that attempt, however, as in the bottom of the seventh, they put together another big inning. Three Hornets had extra base hits that drove in a run as Abbott and junior Noah Steele doubled in their runs, and Cruz tripled in the third run. Then, on a baserunning play, Steele stole home to make it 12-4.
The Tigers had one final burst of energy, but it wouldn’t be enough as they hit a three-run home run to make the final score 12-7. Cruz and Abbott were key factors offensively in the win as Cruz went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and Abbott went 2-for-5 with three RBIs. With the midweek victory, the Hornets move to 21-6 on the season and 9-5 in MIAA play.
“For us, it is always trying to play the same way every single day whenever we take the field,” Head Coach John Martin said. “Us coming out and playing the right way, doing the little things, playing with the right attitude and effort, and if you do that during the season, good things are going to happen,”
Martin goes on to praise Cruz’s day, as he has struggled recently, and he simplified his approach, leading to this good game.
“These last couple of games, I have struggled at the plate. I think the reason was I was thinking too much in the [batters] box,” Cruz said. “I came in and had an approach, had a game plan, trusted it, and like the coach said, just keeping it nice and simple, see ball hit ball.”
With the midweek matchup concluded, the Hornets will now travel down to Claremore, Okla., to face off against MIAA opponent and number-15-ranked team, Rogers State. The Hornets are putting their six-game win streak on the line in the road test, and game one will begin on March 27 with first pitch at 2:00 p.m.