New Richmond – With less than two weeks remaining in the regular season, the final days are jammed full of crucial sectional battles.
Monday night Wyoming East and PikeView took their turn in the spotlight.
The Panthers were the team that shined the brightest.
Building a 3-0 lead, PikeView took advantage of crucial fielding mistakes from Wyoming East to grab an 8-2 win and seize the upper hand in the sectional race.
“I thought the team showed up and played really well. The only negative part was probably me tonight,” PikeView head coach Josh Wyatt said. “There were some base running mistakes that were on my end. There was some pitch calling that was on my end. I felt like they came and did their job and I was probably a little behind on that. I thought their performance was phenomenal. I have to be better.”
The visitors hit the scoreboard first with two outs in their initial at-bat.
A two-out walk to Jared Vestal and a passed ball set the table for Deuce Rompon who singled home the first run.
Two innings later the Panthers took advantage of lead-off walk to Landon Wyatt to increase their advantage.
Moving to second on a passed ball, Wyatt later broke for third and scored when the throw attempt found its way into left field.
The home team dodged a run in the fourth when a relay throw from Jared Phillips to Zach Hunt at the plate cut down a runner trying to score.
The Warriors then appeared to be out of the inning after a fly ball was lifted to left which would have been the third out of the stanza. When the running catch was dropped, Christian Walters scored for a 3-0 lead.
“Our defense has been shaky all year. Hitting was decent and pitching was decent. We just have a lot of young kids,” Wyoming East head coach Kevin Hedinger said. “There at the end I had maybe five freshman on the field with a sophomore on the mound and a sophomore at second.”
East answered quickly with a two-out double in the bottom of the fourth, but the fielding woes continued for the Warriors.
A single from starting pitcher Eli Hilling was followed by a double from Vestal and a walk to Rompon, loading the bases.
Zach Rose then hit a ground ball that was misplayed at short, allowing two runs to cross for a 5-1 lead.
After dropping the match-up to the Warriors earlier in the season, Wyatt did not want to see the game slip away Monday. In the first meeting, the Panthers led 4-2 before East scored six runs on its way to an 8-6 win.
“We had Friday and Saturday off and that is rare for us this time of year. Friday and Saturday both, we mentioned how we jumped out to an early lead and we got complacent,” Wyatt explained. “We kind of did that tonight, but I felt like we did a great job of taking what we earned and capitalizing on that.”
The Panthers continued to put the ball in play and the fielding miscues for East continued into the sixth inning.
Austin Bennett doubled to start the at-bat and took third on a passed ball. A fly ball on the infield was misplayed by the Warriors, but with the runners holding, East recorded the force-out at second.
On the throw to second, Bennett raced home to make it a 6-1 game. Two additional errors from East and an RBI-single from Rompon plated two more across for an 8-1 lead.
“I was pleased with the way we put the bat on the ball. Their pitcher is really good,” Hedinger said. “We hit some balls right at them and they made some plays. We made a couple of errors, but you are going to make a couple. You are not going to win many games where you only score two runs though.”
PikeView now has clashes with region foes Independence on Tuesday and Nicholas County Friday. The biggest games come later in the week when the Panthers battle sectional foe Westside in a doubleheader Saturday.
“The section is a little all over the place with Bluefield beating Wyoming East, then Wyoming East turning around and beating Westside and us,” Wyatt said. “To claim that No. 1 seed, we knew we had to come down here and win in a fashion that we should. We will have to manage some pitching on Tuesday and Friday, but still with the idea of trying to go in and get victories. Saturday has to be of the utmost importance.”
The Warriors still have games against Bluefield and county rival Westside in its quest to be the top seed in the section.
“The kids battled tonight. I thought Miken (Smyth) threw well at times, but his control was off a little bit and that put the pressure on our defense,” Hedinger said. “We got some really good swings out of some kids that have struggled some. They have been down on themselves, but they just don’t understand that baseball is a game of failures. You are going to fail a lot. You have multi-millionaires that are failing seven out of ten times.”
