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Griffons struggle with Liberal, top Joplin
By Joe Warren
Nevada Daily Mail
The Nevada Griffons beat the Joplin Slashers with three runs in the eleventh inning Monday, 6-4, capping a tumultuous weekend on the diamond.
The Griffons were swept by Liberal (Kan.) in a doubleheader at Lyons Stadium Saturday, then beat the BeeJays Sunday to salvage a four-game split with the southwest Kansas club.
Saturday the Griffons jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the first game of the doubleheader.
Walks to Ryan Tokarz and Anthony Ottrando put two men on with Liberal up 1-0 in the first, then Jimmy Dever singled, scoring Tokarz to tie the game.
Will Feil followed with a single to left that got by Liberal left fielder Matt McConnell, allowing Ottrando and Dever to score to put Nevada up by two.
But the Griffons wasted opportunities to score the rest of the game, and the BeeJays came back to win 5-3.
Nevada had runners on first and second with nobody out in the second and third innings, then had runners in scoring position with less than two outs in the fourth and sixth, but couldn't add to their advantage.
Liberal scored a run in the third to make it 3-2, then scored three runs in the sixth to secure the come-from-behind win.
In the second game Liberal jumped out to 6-0 lead with three runs in the third and three in the fourth, before Nevada scored twice in the fifth for the final margin of defeat.
The Griffons salvaged the final game of the series Sunday with an offensive explosion.
Nevada scored nine runs in the third inning to take a 10-1 lead, then ended a 153 inning homerless drought in the seventh as they scored five more runs to put the BeeJays to bed.
The win gave Nevada and Liberal a 2-2 split over the weekend series with the Griffons winning Friday, and also evened the season series between the two Jayhawk League clubs at 4-4.
"It would have been nice to do better than 4-4 against them," Nevada head coach John Hill III said. "Now we'll just have to go to work on Derby, go to work on Hays and go to work on Joplin."
The Griffons would blow a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the ninth Monday in Joplin, before getting late RBIs from Dever, Tommy Fitzgerald and Nick Adams.
Nevada is now 25-16 overall, 18-15 in the Jayhawk League, which puts them in fourth place.
Derby leads the league with a 26-8 record, while Hays (20-12) and El Dorado (22-14) are tied for second.
The Griffons play in Joplin again today at 7 p.m., against the Slashers. Joplin is in sixth place in the seven-team league with a 11-23 mark.
Nevada then visits Derby Thursday, before going to Hays for a rare six-game series beginning Friday.