The Great Bend Bat Cats rolled past the McPherson Pipeliners 12-5 in Wednesday's 2022 baseball season opener at the Great Bend Sports Complex.
Bat Cats reliever Dash Albus (Temple College, Texas) struck out seven batters and started his outing with a double-play groundball against John Downy.
"It's a good day to be a Bat Cat," Albus said in a postgame interview. "I had to fill the strike zone and work ahead. I got a groundball and we turned a double play. Everything I threw worked. It was a good day."
The Bat Cats scored six third-inning runs. A Kyle Gates single scored Dre Amaral and Alex Rodgers. Bodi Waller's double scored Gates. Waller scored on Adam Mustow's single. Mustow and Colter Maldanado scored on an error for a 6-1 lead.
Mustow scored on Si Schumacher's fifth-inning groundball. Matthew Howell scored on a Dawson French sixth-inning double. Hunter Gotreaux and Jojo Nieves delivered RBI singles in a 4-run eighth inning after French and Waller reached on an error and hit batter.
McPherson's Bradley Morris and John Downy delivered 2-run doubles in the final two innings. The Pipeliners scored an unearned first-inning run.
Pipeliners 100 002 002 – 5 7 3
Bat Cats 006 011 04x – 12 15 2
Reynolds, Showalter (4), Childress (7), Hatch (8) and Robinson. Stewart, Albus (3), Kreutzer (7), Riley (8) and Schumacher. W–Albus, 1-0. L–Reynolds. 2B–BC–Waller, French; M–Morris, Downy.
THURSDAY – The Hays Larks play Great Bend at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Great Bend Sports Complex.
The 2022 season marks the 77th season of Hays Larks baseball. Coach Frank Leo starts his 40th season for the summer collegiate team. Hays (32-8) placed fourth at the 2021 NBC World Series.
The Larks return seven players, including Hays natives Dylan Dreiling and Palmer Hutchison. Dreiling was named the 5A Player of the Year by the Kansas Association of Baseball Coaches. The Tennessee commit hit .359 in 13 games last summer. Hutchison completed his third season at Kansas City, Kansas Community College. He hit .276 in 36 games last summer and led the team with 12 doubles.
Other veterans are catcher Brady Evans, outfielder Leo Jiminian, pitcher and first baseman Cade Brown and pitchers Hunter Parker, Luuk ter Beek. Brady Rose played for the Larks in 2020.
Great Bend plays at Hays Friday. Admission is free.
This marks the Larks third season as a member of the Rocky Mountain Baseball League. Hays won the league championship the last two summers. Liberal and Dodge City are also league members.
