By CONOR NICHOLL

cnicholl@dailynews.net

After he caught the final out Wednesday, Hays Larks center fielder Brandon Eckerle found starting pitcher Eddie Carl and gave him the game ball. Carl, wearing a big smile, put the ball in his baseball bag, a memento from the best outing of his two-year Lark career.

"If I make the last catch and make the last out, I usually give (the ball to) the pitcher or somebody that had a good game, like they do in movies," Eckerle said. "I try to copy that."

Carl worked eight innings, the most in his 17 career starts with Hays, and permitted one run in a 3-1 victory against Liberal in front of nearly 800 fans on Armed Forces Night at Larks Park. Carl said it was the longest outing at any level "in a couple years, probably."

"He was outstanding tonight," Hays manager Frank Leo said.

Carl, who has never worked past the seventh inning in any start during the past two summers and often labored through long at-bats, delivered an efficient 90 pitches (64 strikes) and didn't walk a batter. Helped by two pickoffs at first base, Carl worked around eight hits and struck out five. Eric Rose finished for his team-leading fourth save.

"His velocity looked good tonight," Leo said of Carl. "His fastball was low in the zone and I thought it had some good giddy-up tonight. He started putting people away. He started attacking the zone instead of getting picky."

Carl, who went 3-3 with a 4.63 earned-run average in 11 starts last season, improved to 2-2 overall with a 1.78 ERA in 301âÑ3 innings this year. He and Andrew Heck (2.16 ERA) have formed a strong duo at the top of the rotation and helped Hays rebound after an 0-3 start in the Jayhawk League.

"I think he was determined to take us deep into that game," Leo said. "You know what is kind of nice right now is Heck and Eddie Carl, they are kind of feeding off each other. It's a great 1-2 punch. They want to do just as good as the other guy did. That's great, pushing each other."

Hays finished a six-game home stand against El Dorado and Liberal with a 4-2 record, including tying a season-high with three straight victories. The Larks are 11-8 overall and 8-7 in the Jayhawk League, while Liberal dropped to 13-13 and 7-10. Hays, the defending league champions, has moved up to third place in the standings. The Larks will face Derby in a three-game road series this weekend.

"Hopefully, we can go to Derby and win that series and be in first place pretty soon," Carl said.

On June 16, Carl faced Liberal and permitted nine runs (five earned) in 51âÑ3 innings and took the loss in a 13-1 defeat. Five days ago, he faced El Dorado and delivered six innings with no earned runs, but a high pitch count ended his night early. Carl made several changes for Wednesday's outing. Carl looked at scouting reports and saw where he threw against Liberal in his June 16 outing.

"Worked a lot of inside fastballs, tried to catch them off guard and then mix it up," he said. "Probably mixed it up more than we did last time."

"You know what they are doing well against, you make that adjustment," Leo said. "He is a junior going into his senior year, he has been around the game a little bit. That is a sign of a veteran right there."

Carl focused on hitting spots and getting outs faster. He had two at-bats that went longer than six pitches and never had an inning with more than 16 pitches.

"Against El Dorado, I was in a lot of deeper counts," he said. "This time, I tried to eliminate some of those deeper counts, try to get a full count or walk anybody. I just tried to get as much movement as possible. If they were looking inside, I try to throw outside or vice versa, so I think I mixed it up good on the hitters' counts."

Hays tallied single runs in the third, fourth and fifth. Joe Huwer drove in two runs, with an RBI groundout in the third and a sacrifice fly in the fifth. Codi Harshman singled in a run in the fourth.

Liberal scored its lone run in the fifth on an RBI single from Chad Comer. Last year, Carl relied on a split-finger fastball. This year, he mainly uses two-seam fastballs, sinkers and cutters to coax outs. It produced three 1-2-3 innings and one extra-base hit.

"I see some pitches that look like they break the whole plate," he said. "Just try to run it in as much as possible and try to jam a lot of guys. Hopefully, it is moving as much as I think it is."

Carl, though, worked around jams in the third and seventh with pickoffs. With runners on first and third in the third, Carl tried the patented fake to third, throw to first pickoff move. He caught Kevin Carby off the bag. Scott Schauer took off from third and Larks' first baseman Greg Bieker threw home for the out. In the seventh, Carl picked Justin Gordey off first base on a similar play. Carl has a team-best three pickoffs this year after none last summer.

"He must really be hiding it well and moving his feet quick," Leo said. "I thought that part of his game also improved tonight. He was a little quicker to the plate, was throwing over to first a little more frequently, and I thought he did a good job of improvement there, too."

Carl told pitching coach Keith Harper after every inning that he wanted to finish the game. However, Rose completed the contest with a fly ball to Eckerle in center. Eckerle kept the game ball and handed it to Carl in the postgame handshake.

"Just an outstanding effort all the way around," Leo said.