BY TRISTAN SASSE
PHOTO COURTESY OF FHSU ATHLETICS
After snapping a 10-game losing streak over the weekend, the Fort Hays State University baseball team was back in action on Tuesday, March 27, against its conference rival, the Nebraska-Kearney Lopers. Struggling to make contact with the ball for the majority of the evening, the Tigers were shutout at Larks Park, 7-0.
With the loss, FHSU fell to 4-9 at home on the season while the Lopers improved to 5-6 away from Kearney.
UNK showed a dominant offensive display with 14 hits but stranded 12 runners on-base. Meanwhile, the Tigers finished with six hits, and three of them came after the seventh inning.
The Lopers led from the top of the second inning and never looked back. Nebraska-Kearney scored twice in the second and added an additional run in the sixth before taking a commanding 7-0 lead after a 4-run eighth inning.
Alex Achtermann came away with the victory for UNK. Achtermann struck out six batters and allowed four hits over 104 pitches through eight innings. On the other side, Alex Ruxlow took the defeat by allowing five hits and two earned runs over five innings. Ruxlow threw 92 pitches and struck out five batters.
Five different FHSU batters collected a hit, with Addison Kaasch being the sole Tiger with multiple hits. For the Lopers, nine different players made it on base. Brandon Hernandez and Peter Carlson both went 3-for-5. Carlson finished with three RBIs while four other Lopers had one RBI each.
Up next, FHSU (11-19 overall, 3-14 in MIAA) will head to Emporia, Kansas over the weekend to take on the ESU Hornets (15-11, 6-7) in a 3-game series. Meanwhile, UNK (17-11, 10-4) will travel to Warrensburg, Missouri to face Central Missouri (21-7, 12-5), also part of a 3-game series.