Not your typical Larks victory
June 24, 2003
By RANDY GONZALES
Hays Daily News
This wasn’t your typical Hays Larks game.
For instance:
— The manager didn’t show up until the last out.
— Pitching coach Joe Hill was standing in the third base coach’s box.
— Larks players — and a kid or two from the stands — announced batters.
— A pitcher got a rare opportunity to pinch-hit.
— There was no Frank Sinatra singing “New York, New York” — as per tradition — after the Larks’ 12-1 run-rule win in seven innings over the Great Bend Cardinals Monday night at Larks Park.
But there were some things that were business as usual.
Such as:
— Hays won its ninth straight game.
— Hays’ potent offense kept rolling, banging out 12 hits.
— Hays’ pitching was solid, allowing just one run on five hits.
— Hays’ defense played errorless ball, and turned a nifty double play started by third baseman Aaron Batlle.
— The Larks burgers were still tasty.
The Cardinals (1-9), a first-year club, were clearly overmatched against the Larks (14-2), just as in the teams’ first meeting of the summer, a 10-2 Hays win in Great Bend June 16. At least the Cardinals’ uniforms looked sharp.
A casual observer might wonder what a game like this accomplishes for the Larks, other than fattening batting averages and lowering earned-run averages. But Leo knows these nonleague games that fill out the schedule in between Jayhawk League contests help keep the players sharp; Larks not normally in the lineup get a chance to swing the bat.
Hays was supposed to play a Jayhawk doubleheader at the Topeka Capitals Monday, but that was postponed by rain. Leo got the Cardinals on the phone, and hastily arranged a game at Larks Park.
Leo just wasn’t able to be there. He had a family chore to attend to out of town, so Hill took over when the Larks were at bat. Normally, it’s Hill’s pitchers who ice down their arms after games, but he might have needed an ice pack after waving so many runners home to score.
Starter Landon Harper, and Tommy Hottovy — who pitched in relief after pinch-hitting — were scheduled to go against Topeka Monday.
Harper (3-0) allowed one run on four hits, with two walks and three strikeouts. His last appearance was June 17, when he beat Topeka.
“The key thing is pitching,” Leo said. “Landon hadn’t pitched since last Tuesday.”
Hottovy tossed two scoreless innings, giving up one hit, with no walks and three strikeouts.
Normally, it’s an adjustment going from swinging aluminum bats in the spring at college, and using wood in the summer for the Larks. But don’t tell Batlle that. Batlle went 3-for-4 Monday, with two runs scored and two RBIs, to raise his team-leading average to .442.
“The key is to swing the bat as much as you can early on,” Leo said of the switch to wooden bats.
Cody Ehlers drove in three runs to increase his team lead in RBIs to 22.
Jeff Bieker and Craig Cooper contributed two hits each, with Bieker scoring two runs and driving home two more, and Cooper adding one RBI and a run scored.
After getting a run in the first, Hays used an eight-run third inning to knock out Great Bend starter and loser Ryan Wagner. The Larks batted around, with Ehlers hitting an RBI double and Cooper belting a run-scoring triple. Adam Cox added a two-run single in the inning, and Bieker’s single scored another run. Batlle added a two-run single for his second hit of the inning before Ehlers ended the carnage with an RBI groundout.
If it was Lewis-Klitschko, the game would have ended in the third to stop the bleeding.
Instead, the Larks added three runs in the fourth for good measure, before the game mercifully came to an end in the seventh.
Hays will play another nonleague game Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Newton Bandits.
GAME NOTES: Leo said one of the two games rained out Monday will be made up when Topeka comes to town July 14 for a scheduled single game that will be turned into a doubleheader. ... The Larks’ current nine-game winning streak matches their longest winning streak last year. Two years ago, Hays had both a nine-game and 10-game winning streak. ... Harper was hitting 87 mph with his fastball on the radar gun.