BY JIM MISUNAS
Sam Houston State pitcher Steven Beard was as good as advertised for the Great Bend Bat Cats.
Beard threw six shutout innings and struck out 10 batters to spark the Bat Cats to an 8-4 Sunflower League baseball victory over the Mulvane Patriots.
Red-hot leadoff batter Luke Repka doubled and tripled and drove home four runs. Daunte Freeman doubled and drove home three runs.
The Bat Cats (6-3, 4-2 Sunflower) journey to Mulvane (5-6, 4-4 Sunflower) Wednesday.
Great
Bend roared to an 8-0 lead after four innings. Repka tripled home C Meinert to
spark a four-run third inning. Freeman’s double scored Nolan Riley and Dawson
Pomeroy after a walk and single. Zach Poe’s single scored Freeman for a 4-0
lead.
Repka’s double cleared the bases as Gibson, Brown and Meinert scored after a pair of fourth-inning walks and a single. Freeman’s single scored Repka for an 8-0 lead.
Beard was dominant until a seventh-inning error by Repka led to a three-run inning. Willie Ward singled home Chase Bryan and Noah Argenta singled home Caleb Stull and Colby Standard. Reliever Curry struck out Kenny Alred to end the rally.
Mulvane’s Stull doubled home Pa Bethea in the eighth inning.
Mulvane Patriots 000 000 310 – 4 9 1
GB Bat Bats 004 400 00x – 8 9 1
Smith, Nagle (4), Benefiel (6), Cameron (8) and Stull. Beard, Curry (7) and Gibson. W–Beard. L–Smith. 2B–GB–Freeman, Repka; M–Stull. 3B–GB–Repka.
