Larks sweep Liberal

6-16-04

By NICHOLAS McQUEEN

Hays Daily News

The Hays Larks took two steps toward winning their first Jayhawk League series Tuesday.

Last week, the Larks split four games with Elkhart. On Monday, Hays dropped its series opener with Liberal. The Larks took the two middle games of the series with a doubleheader sweep Tuesday night at Larks Park. Hays won the opener, 4-3 in eight innings, then took the nightcap, 3-0.

The two teams will play tonight at 7:30 at Larks Park in the series finale.

Hays manager Frank Leo was happy to see his team bounce back after Monday's loss to sweep on Tuesday.

“They responded well,” Leo said of his Larks, who sit at 4-3 in the league and 8-3 overall. “It's just like the Elkhart series. Coming out here tonight, if we were going to win this series we had to win the doubleheader.”

Hays got good pitching from its starters. Chris Ofat pitched a complete game to get the win in the opener. Ofat (3-0) allowed six hits and three runs. He walked one and struck out three.

In Game 2, Bob Reifschneider (1-1) pitched a complete game, and didn't allow a hit until the fourth inning. The right-hander had seven strikeouts.

“Until we get our bullpen figured out, we like our starters to go as deep as they can,” Leo said. “We know what we're going to get from Chris Ofat, because we saw him last year. That's big for Bob Reifschneider, for him to get to that seventh inning. He pitched a good game against Elkhart and lost 3-2.”

Hays had a 2-1 lead early in Game 1. Billy Sharp led off the first inning with a walk and scored on an error at shortstop. Tyler Wasserman scored Nolan Reimold, who reached on the error.

After Liberal tied it in the third, J.C. Field put the Larks up with a solo homer in the fourth.

Liberal (4-6, 1-2) got a solo homer from Jacob Polomarez in the sixth, a tying shot that hit the scoreboard in right field. That forced the game into extra innings.

In the eighth, Jason Zoeller led off getting aboard on an error, and advanced to second on a single by Kevin Russo. A wild pitch moved the runners up a base. After a short fly ball to left for the first out, Wasserman walked to load the bases. Gabe Marchant hit a grounder to short, and the Bee Jays tried to turn an inning-ending double play. Liberal got the runner at second, but Marchant was safe at first, allowing Zoeller to come home with the winning run.

“They made some great plays last night (Monday),” Leo said. “They executed when they had to on offense. The shoe was on our foot tonight. We hit some balls hard in that seventh inning, so something had to fall for us.”

The loss went to Matt Gomez De Segura (1-1) in relief.

In Game 2, the Bee Jays committed five errors, one of which resulted in a run.

Sharp scored on a wild pitch in the third to put the Larks up 1-0, and Hays got two runs in the fourth.

Hays managed just three hits against Chad Rhodes (0-1), one each from Sharp, Zoeller and Merchant, who had the only RBI of the game.

“Now that we've worked hard to put ourselves in a position to win the series, now we've got to come out with the same kind of focus and intensity,” Leo said.

Sports writer Nicholas McQueen can be reached at (785) 628-1081, ext. 130, or by e-mail at sports@dailynews.net.