Spoiled by the Heat

Havasu power overwhelms Larks in title game

By NICK McQUEEN

Hays Daily News

WICHITA — It wasn’t that the Larks were out of good pitchers for the championship round of the 73rd annual National Baseball Congress World Series.

The pitchers left for the finals Sunday at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium against the powerful Havasu (Ariz.) Heat just had a great reputation to uphold — and against a much better team.

Hays starter Justin Randa was pounded for 22â„3 innings and the Havasu Heat rolled to a 14-2 decision, winning the World Series with a dominating 7-0 tourney record.

“We were hoping that Justin would settle in a little bit, this being the last time he took the mound,” Larks manager Frank Leo said. “We were hoping that would pump him up a little bit. He had some good spots, he just couldn’t get ahead of hitters.”

Havasu, which finished the summer at 51-2 and on a 29-game winning streak, blasted out 17 hits and went through five Hays pitchers from a staff that put up a tournament-best 1.69 earned-run average heading into Sunday.

The game was the end of a tournament where the Larks had to battle back through the elimination bracket with four straight wins to reach the finals.

“They’re a great bunch of guys. You want to forget tonight, because they had a great run and you don’t want a bad taste going out,” Leo said.

The Heat faced allegations earlier in the week of replacing more than the five players allowed by the NBC after qualifying for the tournament. Though it had never been proved, Havasu seemed to take out its frustrations of a long week against the Larks.

It was the fourth time Hays has been in the finals and the fourth runner-up finish, the last coming in 2001.

“You take away the 1995 U.S.A. team that we had to try to beat for a title, this might be the best offensive club I’ve seen in many years,” Leo said of Havasu, which posted a tournament-best 71 runs. Randa (2-1) was charged with five of those runs.

The Heat put up five runs through the first three innings and kept pouring it on, getting hit after hit. Havasu scored five runs in the fourth, one on the fifth, two in the sixth and one in the seventh.

Randa kept it close until a bases-loaded double by Kevin Ramos cleared the bases in the third inning to make it 4-0.

“We know he was trying hard,” Leo said. “It just didn’t work out tonight.

“That’s a ball club you have to get a head of in the count. They were just sitting on fastballs and knew we were going to come at them. That’s a tough situation,” Leo added.

Meanwhile, the Hays offense couldn’t get much going against Havasu starter Derik Drewett, who picked up his first win of the tourney. Hays (40-19) did manage nine hits, but stranded nine baserunners. Ricky Angel and Clayton Karst each drove in a run, one in the sixth and one in the eighth.

Tyler Barnett and Eric Morrison each had two hits. Morrison, pitcher Brad Hutt, shortstop Mike Brownstein and first baseman Ricky Angel were named All-Americans following the game.

“All four of those guys, that’s a nice honor,” Leo said. “I know they would put those all back in the trophy case if we could have played better and made a game of it.”

NBC Notes

— Brownstein was honored as the tournament’s stolen base champion. He had seven stolen bases on the tourney, while the team led the field with 23 stolen bases.

— Kansas State right-hander Brad Hutt was voted the tournament’s top pitcher. In 17 innings through the two weeks, Hutt didn’t allow a run and threw a complete-game shutout Wednesday against perennial power Seattle to earn his second tourney win.

— The tournament was in its last season being run by the Wichita Wranglers organization. The Wranglers will be playing in Springdale, Ark., next season. The City of Wichita bought the tournament and will run it next season.

Sports reporter Nick McQueen can be reached at (785) 628-1081, Ext. 128 or by e-mail at

nmcqueen@dailynews.net.