Hounds Season Ends in Wichita

Greyhound Baseball traveled to Wichita for the Region IX Central District Championship past weekend. It is the fifth time in the tenure of Head Coach John Hill III that the Greyhounds have advanced to the tournament.

It began Friday with a matchup against the tournaments number 2 seed Cowley. FSCC struck first when red-shirt sophomore Mitch Sloan led off the game with a double, and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Sophomore Will Baker then drove him in with a sacrifice fly. Cowley responded in the top on the second with 2 runs off of starter Justin Olaughlin. O'Laughlin went 7 innings allowing 4 runs on 11 hits and striking out 5. FSCC responded in the third with RBI singles by sophomore Brandon Krennrich and freshman Sean Moore to take a 3-2 lead. The score remained the same until the top of the eighth when Cowley scored 3 runs on 2 hits. Freshman closer Kobie Schmitt came in to relieve O'Laughlin and struck out 2 after allowing a single. The score remained the same when the Hounds came up for their last at bat, when sophomore Mackay Williams and Mitch Sloan each got on base with a single and a walk respectively. Two Hound strikeouts brought up Krennrich who doubled follow by an Andrew Morrow single and the game was tied. Cowley scored 2 runs in the tenth off of 2 hits to win the game 7-5. Joe Fragano took the loss for FSCC.

Friday's loss set up an elimination game with the tournaments overall 3 seed Barton County Saturday morning. Fort Scott struck first on a sacrifice fly from Brandon Krennrich, but Barton quickly responded with 2 runs in the home half off of FSCC starting pitcher Kyle Smith. A Sean Moore RBI single in the 4^th and a double and triple from Danny Crews and Krennrich gave the Hounds a 5-2 lead after 5 innings. Kyle Smith was brilliant for FSCC going 8 innings and allowing 5 runs on 9 hits and striking out 4. Freshman Andruw Mckenzie had a clutch pinch hit double scoring 2 runs in the Greyhound 8^th. Smith tried to finish what he started but ran into some trouble in the 9^th before handing the ball to closer Kobie Schmitt for his 15^th save of the season.

The win Saturday set up another elimination matchup with the tournament's top seeded Hutchinson Blue Dragons on Sunday. FSCC quickly found itself down 7-0 as starter Nathan Miller struggled going 3.2 innings and allowing 9 hits and 7 runs, but only 3 of them were earned. 6 Greyhound errors ultimately led to the hole. FSCC did make Hutchinson sweat a little when they scored 6 runs in the 8^th highlighted by Harrison Whitworth's 2 run homerun in his final at bat as a Greyhound. Ultimately the Hounds could not come back losing the Dragons 14-9. Head Coach John Hill III shared his thoughts on the tournament, and on the season as a whole:

"I could not be more proud of these guys for the resiliency they showed this season, and in particular these playoffs. After heartbreaking losses to Colby and Cowley, they responded with wins, and that as a coach lets me know how much they care. It always breaks my heart to have to say goodbye to the sophomores, but I feel this group has accomplished so much this season. However while our baseball season has ended, we as a program have one more goal to accomplish, that being a national championship in team GPA."

This season was filled with records set by the team and the sophomore class. FSCC finished with a record of 38-24, with the 38 wins being the 3^rd most in the John Hill era. The 2017 sophomore class won 75 games making them the winningest class in the Hill era. The FSCC Pitching Staff broke the strikeout record by striking out 410 hitters. The FSCC offense broke the records for batting average, slugging percentage, and doubles. Listed below is a listing of where some of the Hounds stand in the record books. FSCC Baseball would like to thank everyone who supported the team this season, without all of you none of our success would be possible.