Poor pitching hurts Hays
By CONOR NICHOLL
Neither Jason Stacy nor Eddie Carl had their usual stuff in their starts Saturday and Sunday for the Hays Larks against the Liberal Bee Jays. They collectively allowed 13 runs in two innings. The defense also wasn't sound.
The problematic pitching and defense yielded two blowout losses, 18-9 and 12-7.
It was most runs Hays had permitted in back-to-back games since the Larks permitted 31 against Topeka and El Dorado on July 30-31, 1999.
"Our guys are not happy about that," Larks manager Frank Leo said. "They are ready to come back and play some good baseball and get after it. They are hurting a little bit, little bit embarrassed by the scores."
Despite the two losses, Hays is still in first place in the Jayhawk League at 25-14 overall, 19-10 in the conference. The Larks, who have won five league championships since 2000, are a half-game ahead of defending champ Derby.
Hays has a chance to erase the weekend woes and stay ahead in the league race when is starts a two-game road series against Dodge City (14-20, 10-18) tonight and Wednesday. The games mark the season's final road trip and the last seven regular season games before the National Baseball Congress World Series starts.
"They are ready to turn things around," Leo said. "The attitude and spirit of the club is good."
The pair of losses also ended a nine-game streak where Hays went 8-1, including a season-high six-game winning streak. Leo and the Larks will attempt to regain form against Dodge City. Hays is 2-0 versus Dodge City this season, 7-2 in the last two summers.
"We have some things going for us, but we just can't forget where we were prior to this and I know those guys want to get back there," Leo said.
Those "things," most notably are an airtight bullpen led by Steven Mazur, Chase Johnson and Kevin Hennessey, a strong offense and a starting rotation capable of producing solid five to six inning starts.
That occurred in the first game of the Liberal series when ace right-hander Patrick Cooper (6-2) worked 5Ôªø2âÑ3 innings, Mazur tossed 3Ôªø1âÑ3 hitless innings for the save, and the offense pounded out 15 hits.
The next two days, though, the starting pitching put Hays in early holes.
Stacy (2.32 earned-run average entering the weekend) got just one out and allowed six runs Saturday, the shortest outing by a Larks starter all summer. Liberal led 15-3 after two innings as Hays used four pitchers to coax 12 outs.
"They are one of the better hitting lineups in the Jayhawk League that I have seen from top to bottom in awhile," Leo said.
The offense scored nine runs, but the early pitching problems left the Larks too big a deficit.
"You have to give credit to Liberal for swinging it pretty good," Leo said. "But we just didn't make very good pitches, didn't have command, left too many pitches over the middle of the plate and a good hitting ball club is doing to do that to you. Consequently going to the bullpen so early kind of put us in disarray for the whole weekend."
On Saturday, Carl (2.70 ERA last seven starts) allowed nearly twice as many runs (seven) than collected outs (four) in his shortest appearance in 2008.
"Jason and Eddie, neither of them had their good stuff," Leo said. "It is a concern that some of our guys that have been consistent were out of sync a little bit."
An early 7-4 deficit was too much to overcome for an offense that produced seven runs. The defense also had seven errors in the two losses. Shortstop Mike Brownstein, who had three errors in his first 13 games, committed three Saturday and Sunday.
"These guys have had some bad innings and so we need to get it fixed, because our offense has turned it up," Leo said. We made some errors ... that are not typically made by those guys. Liberal hit us at the right time. We were a little flat."
Against Dodge City, the Larks will start Casey Hauptman (3-1, 3.07 ERA) tonight. Hauptman earned one of the two victories against Dodge City when he threw five solid innings on July 2 -- a start Hays could desperately use after the poor weekend.
Wednesday will have Andrew Heck's (2.79 ERA in 9Ôªø1âÑ3 innings) first start of the summer. He is expected to go four or five innings.
"We got beat around a little bit," Leo said. "But we are still in first place, we are still a first-place club."
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