Box Score Kearney, Neb. – Junior right fielder Caleb Cherryholmes hit two-run homer with two outs in the top of the 10th inning to lift Fort Hays State to a 7-5 win over Nebraska Kearney Friday evening at Memorial Field. 
 
This was the first of a four-game series. The Tigers are now 3-4 (3-2) with UNK dropping to 8-7 (3-2).
 
There were plenty of fireworks early as the teams combined for six runs in the first inning and three more in the second. The pitching staffs then took over, allowing no runs between the fourth through ninth innings.
 
After Kearney stranded two in its half of the ninth, cleanup hitter Kevin Czarnecki led off the Tiger tenth with a double to left center. Loper junior reliever Chayse Gulzow (Grand Island H.S.), who struck out five over four innings, got a ground out and strike out to almost get out of the jam.
 
However, Cherryholmes hit a big fly over the center fielder wall to break the tie. Hays used the long ball to come back from a 4-2 deficit, getting a two-run shot from leadoff hitter Connor Ross in the second and a solo dinger off the bat of junior 3b Austin Unrein in the third.
 
Unrein (3 for 5, two RBI's) eventually came on in relief, throwing 1.1 innings of hitless ball to earn the win. Each Tiger starter had at least one hit with Hays overcoming three early errors.
 
UNK, who left 10 runners stranded, managed eight hits off three FHSU pitchers. The first three players in the lineup – junior SS Shane Sharkey, senior CF Brandon Landanger and senior 3b Danny Droll -- each collected two hits. Landanger (Kearney H.S.) homered in the second, his first dinger of 2015 and the eighth of his career.
 
Finally, junior right hander John Watson (Shawnee, Okla.) struck out three and walked none in 3.0 innings of relief work.
 
The two teams play a double header tomorrow starting at noon.