HAYS — Runs were in short supply on Friday for the Great Bend Braves.
On the first day of the Wild West Fest Tournament, the Class A American Legion team was kept scoreless until the final inning of the second game in junior division pool play.
The Hays Junior Eagles beat the Braves 9-0 in the first game, and the Hays Rangers defeated the Braves 10-1 in the second.
“We’ve had good hits all day long, but the hits that we’ve had have been right at them,” Braves head coach Jordan Metro said. “We just have to find some holes at some point and get some through.”
In Game 2, Rangers pitcher Cole Schumacher had a no-hitter going through five innings before he was hit by a pitch from Great Bend’s Dillon Reiser, who came into the game in the top of the third after starting pitcher Tristan Hall was tossed from the game by the home-plate umpire.
Schumacher was relieved by Ryan Ruder in the bottom of the sixth.
Ruder started the sixth by giving up a single to Matt Zecha, the Braves’ first in the game.
The Braves didn’t score their run until the seventh, which began with Tyler Nuss drawing a walk.
Lance Ward, Shade Wondra and Mitch Johnson each hit singles with Johnson driving in Nuss to avoid the shutout.
“Our top five or six kids have been hitting the ball all day,” Metro said. “If we have good hard hits, sooner or later they’re going to fall through. That’s what happened in the last inning. They just fell through.”

GAME 1
Hays Junior Eagles 9,
Braves 0
Against the Junior Eagles in Game 1, the Braves pitching struggled in giving up four hits, five walks and two hit by pitches.
Jack Westhoff started on the mound and went three innings before he was relieved by Johnson, who finished the game.
“Jack threw a pretty good three innings,” Metro said. “At the end right before we pulled him, they started to get his timing down, so they started to hit him better. We thought we ought to make a move on that.
“Mitch came in and he was hot and cold. That’s something that we just can’t have as a pitcher. That definitely put us in a hole, but again, hits were the issue.”
Hays scored two runs in the second, three in the third and four in the fourth
Great Bend had two hits in the first game. Zecha had a single and Johnson had a double.

AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL
Wild West Fest Tournament
 
At Hays
 
Friday
 
GAME 1
Hays Jr. Eagles 9, Great Bend Braves 0
             123  45         R   H   E
Eagles  023  40  —    9   4   0
Braves 000  00  —    0   2   1
     Layne Downing & Craig Dreiling; Jack Westhoff, Mitch Johnson (4) & Jared Maneth. W — Downing; L — Westhoff. 2B — Great Bend: Johnson; Hays: Dreiling.
 
GAME 2
Hays Rangers , Great Bend Braves
                  123  456  7         R    H    E
Rangers    301  002  4  —   10   7    1
Braves      000  000  1  —    1    4    3
    Cole Schumacher, Ryan Ruder (6) & Dalton Stout; Tristan Hall, Dillon Reiser (3) & Anson Hall. W — Schumacher; L — Tristan Hall.