Griffons winning streak comes to end

By Ralph Pokorny

Nevada Herald

The Nevada Griffons dropped their second straight Jayhawk League contest of the season Friday night when the Hays Larks beat them 11-3 at Lyon Stadium, ending the Griffons five game winning streak, all of which were against non-Jayhawk League teams.

The Griffons' woes started early Friday evening when with one out on the board Ted Wilke got on base with a single down the right field line and Jeff Hiestand hit his trademark double to centerfield sending Wilkie around third to be thrown out at home.

Hiestand, who has good speed on the base path, tried for third, only to be thrown out by the Larks catcher for the Griffons third out of the inning.

A visibly disgusted Hiestand smashed his batting helmet to the ground scattering pieces of tough blue plastic around third base, earning an automatic ejection from the game. Arguing the call did him no good since it was an obvious violation of Jayhawk League rules,requiring an ejection followed by a suspension from the next game.

The Griffons and the Larks remained even until the fourth inning when the Larks surged ahead with a 3-0 lead.

Two singles and a double gave the Larks their firsts score. A wild pitch by Pat Wells added the Larks second run, and a fly to left field gave the Larks their third run.

The Griffons got on the scoreboard in the fourth as well when Elliot Roberts reached on an error by the Larks second baseman, stole second and moved to third on a throwing error by the catcher. Roberts scored on a sacrifice fly to center field by Brian Nolte, to cut the Larks lead to 3-1.

The Larks picked up run number four in the fifth inning and number five in the sixth extending their lead to 5-1.

In the seventh Aaron Batlle hit the first of his two home runs over the right field fence increasing the Larks lead to 6-1.

In the eighth inning, Batlle came to bat with runners on first and second and hit his second home run of the game over the right field fence for a 9-1 lead.

The Griffons finally mounted some offense in the eighth inning when Quinton Corley and Elliott Roberts walked. A wild pitch moved Corley to third and Roberts to second and both scored on a line drive to right field by Girard, Kan. native Quinn Vinse, cutting the Larks lead to 9-3.

In the ninth inning the Larks added their final two runs for an 11-3 win.

The Griffons are scheduled to finish their four game series with the Hays Larks tonight at 7 p.m. and will play a double-header with the Broncos Monday in El Dorado, Kan., at 6 p.m., instead of the scheduled single game, to make up one of the two games postponed by rain on June 13.

On Wednesday the Griffons will host the El Dorado Broncos for a scheduled double-header at 6 p.m. at Lyon Stadium and the Elkhart Dusters will make their annual trek to Nevada for a four game series June 25-27.