BY JIM MISUNAS
jmisunas@gbtribune.com
After trailing 5-0, the Great Bend Chiefs rallied for a 10-5 victory over the Hays Thomas More Prep Monarchs in Monday's baseball doubleheader at the Great Bend Sports Complex.
CHIEFS 10, HAYS-TMP 5 (G2) – The Chiefs rallied from a 5-0 deficit with 10 consecutive runs for a split of Monday's games. Winning pitcher Joe Moeder delivered the lone base hit in a six-run fourth inning. The Chiefs drew five walks in an inning with two errors.
Colin Hall led the offense with a double and triple. Jade Poe and Stefan Spray delivered RBI hits in the first inning. Gruber and Hall drove home second-inning runs. Colin Hall, Jade Poe, Stefan Spray, Joe Moeder, Christian Zanhter and Townshend Kurth were credited with RBIs in the fourth inning.
"It was a good team effort. When we were down 5-0, I was pretty proud of the guys," said Great Bend Chiefs coach Randy Beck. "When we're down, if they score, we want to score and we did that. We had good some hard-hit balls."
PRATT 10, CHIEFS 7 (G1) – The Great Bend Chiefs baseball team had lost a 7-1 lead that turned into a 7-7 tie Tuesday against the Pratt 86ers.
But the Chiefs were primed for a home-field victory with Brad Beck at third base with no out in the seventh inning. Beck walked, stole second base and raced to third base when no one covered second base.
Pratt's defense rescued the 86ers.
Pratt shortstop Matthew Shanline delivered a perfect throw to catcher Koda Dipman, who tagged Beck out at home after earlier dropping the baseball at home. Reliever Blake Coss retired Stefan Spray and Mathew Moeder to preserve a 7-7 tie.
Pratt finished off the comeback with a three-run eighth inning at the Great Bend Sports Complex. Dipman's single scored Justus Tatro and Grant Younie and Coss scored on a wild pitch off reliever Jade Poe for a 10-7 victory in eight innings.
The Chiefs played four near-perfect innings, but wasted a quality start by Stefan Spray. Chiefs' pinch runner Joe Moeder scored on Gavin Haberman's second-inning groundout. Pratt's Cesar Espino scored on Younie's second-inning sacrifice fly for a 1-1 tie.
Layton Holden was ruled safe on Chayse Gruber's third-inning pop fly when Dipman dropped the baseball after tagging him. Jade Poe singled home Paco Hernandez and Poe alertly took two bases on a wild pitch for a 4-1 lead.
Hernandez doubled home Haberman and Beck's single scored Einar Vargas and Hernandez for a 7-1 lead after four innings.
Things started to unravel when Younie's two-run double was followed by a sacrifice fly by Blake Coss for a 7-4 score off Spray.
Pratt scored three sixth-inning runs with two out. The key play was Deda's line-drive single off Gavin Haberman's glove that loaded the bases with two out. Tatro's single scored Shanline and Cesar Espino and Deda scored on a wild pitch for a 7-7 tie. Reliever Jade Poe left the bases loaded by retiring Dipman on a groundout.
The Chiefs play at 12:15 p.m. Thursday and 4:45 p.m. Friday at the Salina Grand Slam Tournament.
Pratt 001 033 03 – 10 11 4
Chiefs 013 300 00 – 7 6 3
Deda, Coss (4) and Dipman. Spray, Haberman (5), Poe (6) and Beck. W–Coss. L–Poe. 2B–GB–Spray, Hernandez; P–Deda, Younie.
Hays-TMP 500 00 – 5 5 2
Chiefs 220 6x – 10 8 1
Rack, Herrmann (4), Atwater (4) and Wentling. Joe Moeder, Mathew Moeder (5) and Poe. W–J. Moeder. L–Herrmann. 2B–GB–Hall, Zahnter; TMP–Wentling. 3B–GB–Hall.
