Box Score The Fort Hays State baseball team opened the 2012 season with a win on Friday evening (Feb. 24) at West Texas A&M. The Tigers capitalized on several miscues by the Buffs early on to claim a 9-6 win. The teams return to the field Saturday to play the second game of a three-game weekend.

FHSU jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first, scoring on a fielding error, the first of six in the game for West Texas A&M. The Tigers pushed the advantage to 5-0 in the top of the second with an RBI triple by JC Ochoa and a two-RBI single by Nash Smith. Ochoa also scored on a wild pitch in that inning.

WTAMU jumped on the board with a run in the second, but FHSU pushed the advantage to 6-1 on a Sheldon Howell RBI single in the third. The Buffs made a bit of a push in their half of the third and fourth, scoring three runs over that stretch to cut the lead down to 6-4.

A Ryan Busboom RBI single in the sixth and a Brandon Hoefler RBI single in the seventh pushed the Tigers back to a comfortable 8-4 margin. Another fielding error later in the seventh allowed Hoefler to score to make it 9-4.

The Tigers needed just two arms on the evening to pick up the win. Andy Lewton went five innings with five strikeouts, seven hits, and three of four runs earned, but did not allow a walk. Tayler Davis worked the final four innings, allowing just two earned runs in the ninth on a homer, but struck out two and walked just one. He allowed just three hits to pick up the save.

Irving Camacho took the loss for West Texas A&M, going 1.2 innings with two of five runs earned. The Buffs used two other pitchers that each gave up two runs, both in 3.2 innings of work.