By LARRY MORITZ

Salina Journal

HAYS _ They've made it to the final day of the American Legion Zone 7 Tournament, but the Salina Pestinger Falcons are now playing without a safety net.

To extend its season beyond today, Salina must defeat the Hays Eagles twice or the Falcons, the reigning Class AAA state champions, will be done for the summer.

Hays put Salina on the brink of elimination with an 11-6 victory Wednesday in the winners' bracket final. The Eagles (27-14) are the only unbeaten team remaining in the double-elimination tournament and need to win only once today to earn the zone title and advance to next week's state tourney in Pittsburg.

"We'll approach it like it's a doubleheader and we have to come out and sweep that doubleheader," Salina head coach Ryan Kolzow said.

If Hays defeats Salina in today's 4 p.m. contest, no second game will be necessary. If Salina wins that first contest, the two teams would play a second game approximately 30 minutes after the completion of the first.

"This is just a big momentum boost for us," Hays outfielder Matt Malott said of the victory over Salina. "We knew whoever lost this game was probably going to be short on pitching tomorrow. Now we get to play one less game and we're able to save some arms."

After their loss to Hays, the Falcons stayed alive with a 10-5 victory over Dodge City late Wednesday night, eliminating the Rangers from the tournament.

Salina used seven pitchers in its first two tournament games, but starter Tanner Vinson gave the rest of the staff a break by going deep into the ninth inning against Dodge City.

"My last outing I didn't throw very well and I was a little iffy on confidence," Vinson said. "I knew Tyler (Benton) could throw some innings for us but he's our ace and we wanted to save him for tomorrow."

The Falcons got offensive production up and down their lineup against Dodge. No. 2 hitter Conner Martin went 4 for 4 and also reached when he was hit by a pitch for the fourth time in three games.

No. 6 hitter Evan Freeman had a pair of extra-base hits, including a solo home run and a run-scoring double.

No. 9 hitter Sander Bryan, making his first appearance with the Falcons after being called up from the Salina Hawks for postseason play, had two hits, two runs, two RBI and two walks. Sander played position two (catcher) and his uniform number is 22.

"We did a good job bouncing back and swung the bats a little better tonight," Kolzow said. "We had a better approach at the plate toward the end of the game and maybe that will give us a little spark going into tomorrow."

The game was tied 2-2 in the fifth before Salina began to pull away in the middle innings, getting two runs in the fifth, one in the sixth and four in the seventh to lead 9-2.

"We came out and played hard and had fun," Kolzow said. "We talked about in the middle innings not letting Dodge City hang around with us. We got a decent lead and then played well with the lead."

In the early game Wednesday, Salina was able to match Hays offensively for the first four innings, when the Falcons collected eight of their 10 hits and scored all six of their runs. They could not, however, find a way to move runners around against Eagles reliever Logan Downing.

After coming into the game with one out in the fourth, Downing allowed only two hits _ both two-out singles _ over the final 5 2/3 innings.

"When I was in the bullpen I told myself 'Let's get the bad pitches out now,' " Downing said. "I just wanted to throw it over the plate and let them hit it. I'm not going to strike out a bunch of people, so I want to get a lot of fly balls and ground outs and let my defense make the easy plays."

Vinson had three hits _ all doubles _ in his first three at bats against Hays. The Falcons also got two hits and two RBIs apiece for A.J. Farmer and Evan Myers.