Larks win in 15 innings

8-10-04

By NICK McQUEEN

Hays Daily News

WICHITA — Nobody wants to be the last person to leave the party. Unless that party is the National Baseball Congress World Series.

In the elimination bracket, it's win or go home. The Hays Larks and the San Diego Stars played like there was no tomorrow for three hours, 47 minutes, in a game that started late Monday night and finished early this morning. The two teams battled for 15 innings before Hays won 7-6 at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.

Hays managed an RBI single from catcher J.C. Field in the top of the 15th inning to take the lead on a hit that bounced off the spongy turf and over the head of Stars second baseman Brett Barrios.

Field's single scored Jeff Mandel, who beat out an infield single with one out, pinch-hitting for Tyler Wasserman. Mandel advanced to second on a grounder before scoring the winning run on Field's hit.

Hays manager Frank Leo, who remembered another instance several years ago when the Larks played 15 innings against Santa Barbara (Calif.) at the season finale, said the win was a “great team effort.”

The Larks used six pitchers, with Matt Rainey (2-0) picking up the win after working the 14th inning. Stephen Walters picked up his second save of the season, retiring the side in the 15th.

“When you're the visiting team, this is tough to do,” Leo said. “When you don't score you know it's going to be two innings before you can get the win. Hats off to our pitching staff tonight.”

Josh Blake worked five innings in relief, giving up three runs. Two of those runs tied the game in the eight inning.

Barrios hit a two-out double which hit the left-field foul line just beyond the reach of Larks left fielder Billy Sharp to score two runs. Barrios was thrown out by Sharp trying to stretch the hit into a triple.

“This is a big win, mainly because all of the adversity we had to overcome during that ball game,” Leo said. “The ball was foul. Josh felt really bad about it, but he pitched his heart out.”

Starter Bob Reifschneider pitched the first three innings, allowing three runs to give San Diego (27-13) the lead. He had four strikeouts and one walk before being relieved by Blake. Stephen Marek worked the ninth and got a strikeout with two runners on to end a San Diego threat.

Joseph Edens pitched three scoreless innings after relieving Marek, allowing three hits and striking out three.

The Larks (30-14) will turn around and play Jayhawk League champion El Dorado in the 7:30 feature game tonight at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.

“It will take a while for us to sleep tonight,” said Leo at 3 a.m. this morning. “It will take awhile to calm down. We should definitely have some momentum and some energy going into tonight's game. This team really played with the heart of the 2000 team. They battled and they never gave up.”

In 2000, Hays battled back from a loss in its NBC opener to win seven straight to reach the title game.

The Stars had opportunities to win in extra innings, but couldn't get the clutch hit. San Diego stranded five baserunners in extra innings.

Hays broke through in the 15th thanks to Mandel's hustle, beating out an infield single.

“How about Jeff Mandel,” Leo said. “He hasn't had very many at-bats. He battled and you're not going to throw him out. He's got great speed.”

After Aaron Batlle grounded out to second to get Mandel in scoring position, Field sent a chopper over the second baseman's head to score Mandel with the go-ahead run.

“We haven't been catching many breaks down here and we finally got one in that inning. We deserved everything we got in that inning,” Leo said.

Game Notes

— Batlle led the Larks with four hits and an RBI and also scored a run. Hunter Mense added two hits with one run scored. Wasserman had three hits and a run scored with one RBI, a double in the seventh inning. Nolan Reimold singled and doubled; it was his first game at the tournament in which he didn't hit a homer.

— In the seventh inning, the Larks scored five runs to take a 6-4 lead.

— San Diego relief pitcher Will Flynt worked the final eight innings after pitching a complete game on Friday. Flynt took the loss, giving up one run on nine hits with seven strikeouts.

— The 15-inning game is the longest of the tournament but the second longest by time. A 14-inning game between the San Diego Mavericks and Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) lasted 3:55.

Sports writer Nick McQueen can be reached at (785) 628-1081, ext. 128, or by e-mail at nmcqueen@dailynews.net.