Larks pitch way to win at NBC

By MIKE KESSINGER

Hays Daily News

WICHITA — Of the five hits Denver had off Hays Larks starter Brad Hutt in his eight innings of work, three were doubles.

Not one of them mattered much though.

Hutt simply shut down the Cougars. The Hays offense did the rest. The Larks became the first team to advance to the third round of the NBC World Series at Lawrence Dumont Stadium, shutting out the Cougars 4-0. Denver was completing its second game in less than 24 hours as they beat Haysville in a game that ended after 2 a.m. Monday, 12-2 in eight innings. The Larks had a first-round bye.

“After the first inning, I really got into a rhythm,” Hutt said. “(Catcher) Ryan Lush and I really got on the same page, and things started to blow, and the guys just made plays behind them.”

Hutt (3-1) shook off some first innings jitters, and made himself as comfortable as he is playing on different fields around the Big 12 Conference as the ace of the Kansas State pitching staff. Along with the five hits he gave up, Hutt struck out four, and didn’t give up a walk. In the ninth inning, he was relieved by Eric Rose who struck out the Cougars Billy Mansfield before giving way to closer A.J. Dunn. Against the only two batters he faced, Dunn got Aaron Phillips (who doubled off Hutt twice) to ground out, then struck out Anthony Garcia. When it was all done, it was Hutt’s performance that stuck out a little more than anything else.

“It was awesome,” the Larks’ Ricky Angel said of Hutt’s performance. “He threw eight innings of shutout ball. You can’t ask for any more out of your starter. He worked hard for us tonight.”

On the other side of the field, Denver, which the Larks swept in the opening series of the season, got a strong pitching performance by Jakob Cunningham. In his 7 2â„3 innings, Cunningham prevented the Larks from ever pulling away. He gave up just two runs through seven innings before the Larks stretched their lead to 4-0 in the eighth.

The first run came when Angel reached first on an errant throw from Mansfield at shortstop. Rich Michalek reached second on the play, then moved to third, and went home on another error. Angel, who tripped over first base on the sequence, got up and moved to third.

“I didn’t know what was going on,” Angel said. “Coach was telling me, ‘Go back to first, go back to second. Stay at second.’ I was just running.”

Dusty Washburn scored the Larks’ final run with a sacrifice fly to center field that allowed Angel to score from third. After an Eric Morrison single and stolen base, Cunningham was taken out.

“I thought we hit some balls hard,” Larks manager Frank Leo said. “I just felt if we can get men in scoring position we’d be alright, We didn’t put up a lot of hits, but I felt we were putting good swings on the ball.”

Angel and Morrison each had two hits for the Larks. Washburn had two RBIs, and Angel had one.

The win gives Hays (35-17) four days to rest. The Larks will be back in Wichita on Saturday, but has not yet been told at what time, and who they will play.

“We’re just trying to stay loose, and keep up on our hitting, and make sure we’re hitting ground balls,” Hutt said.

“We’ll have to make sure our pitchers are staying sharp with our stuff.”

Sporter reporter Mike Kessinger can be contacted at (785) 628-1081, Ext. 127, or by e-mail at mkessinger@dailynews.net.