Air Force Academy
Fort Hays State
Falcons beat Fort Hays State, 11-7
2/12/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 12, 2002
Air Force extended its winning streak to six games with an 11-7 win over Fort Hays State in a non-conference college baseball game Tuesday, Feb. 12, at the Academy's Falcon Field.
The game started out as a pitchers duel early as FHSU took a 2-0 lead in the second and held that lead until the bottom of the fourth. Josh Gilstrap singled and J.J. Morris doubled and scored in the inning. AFA tied the score at 2-2 in the bottom of the fourth. Josh Phifer's triple drove in Adam Howes for AFA's first run. Phifer then scored on Dan Petro's sacrifice fly.
Fort Hays, 0-1 this season, broke a 4-4 tie with a run in the top of the seventh. Pinch hitter Justin Moore walked and scored on Mark Mendel's single. AFA, 6-1 this season, scored six runs on eight hits in the bottom of the seventh and never relinquished the lead. Brian LaBasco led off the inning with a double down the right-field line. Derck Kasel drove in two runs with a triple to center field. The Falcons had five singles, two doubles, a triple and a walk in the inning.
The Tigers rallied in the top of the eighth for two runs. Dustin Dreher led off the inning with a triple and scored on Frank Pedrique's double. Pedrique scored on Ben Tinius' single to make the score 10-7. With runners on first and third and two outs, Falcon reliever Scott Zicarelli came out of the bullpen to strikeout Tyson Graham for the final out of the inning.
Air Force out-hit Fort Hays, 17-12, in the game but made a season-high four errors. By design, the Falcons used eight pitchers in the game since the team did not play last weekend. The regular starting rotation of Matt Kaercher, Erik Fisher and Johnny Koegel combined to throw the first five innings. Kaercher started and threw two innings. He gave up just one earned run on two hits with four strikeouts. Fisher pitched just one inning and was forced to leave the game when he was hit in the forearm with a line drive. Senior Matt Werner picked up his first win of the season. He pitched the seventh and gave up one run on one hit with one strikeout. He was the pitcher of record when the Falcons scored six in the bottom of the seventh.
Tiger reliever Joe Kjose took the loss. He pitched two-thirds of an inning and gave up six earned runs on seven hits. The Tigers used five pitchers in the game.
Air Force is on the road this weekend as the team plays in the Texas-Arlington Tournament. The Falcons face Arkansas, Feb. 15, UTA, Feb. 16 and Southwest Missouri State, Feb. 17. AFA plays its next seven games, and 16 of its next 19 on the road.
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