Gallery by Greg Barnett
Gardner – PikeView’s players have had this week circled on their calendar since the schedule was finalized.
Looking to rebuild a program that was a perennial title contender in the previous decade, the Panthers need to first take smaller steps and this weeks slate, against their three sectional opponents, is a good place to start. It’s also off to a good start.
The Panthers capitalized on nine walks combined with well-timed hits to down Wyoming East 13-3 in six innings Wednesday in Gardner.
The win was PikeView’s second of the week against a sectional foe with a victory at Westside kicking the stretch off on Monday. It will conclude on Thursday when the Panthers travel to Bluefield with a chance to improve to 4-0 in sectional play.
“Starting off with (starting pitcher) Sammy Lyle, he had a great outing down at James Monroe but we let him down defensively,” PikeView head coach Josh Wyatt said. “Then he had a rough start against Graham here in a doubleheader and the pitch calling kind of took him out of it. But coming into this week we had a pitching rotation set but Westside, kudos to them on Monday. We put balls in play and they made every play to force our hand and bring (Nathan) Riffe out a little earlier, so Sammy was moved up a day. He was slated to go tomorrow against Bluefield but the kids have known. They saw this back in December and expect this to be a statement week for us and maybe setting the standard a little bit.”
Wyatt’s Panthers set the standard early against the visiting Warriors.
After a leadoff walk issued to Drew Damewood, East’s freshman starter Miken Smyth nearly avoided catastrophe when he struck out the next two batters but an RBI single from Zach Rose was followed by an RBI double from Peyton Greer, putting the hosts up 2-0 after an inning.
They added to their advantage in the second frame when Christian Walters and Nathan Riffe notched a pair of run-scoring singles to make it 4-0 but East found its own stroke in the top of the third.
Zach Hunt led off with a double and all-stater Jacob Howard drove him in with a two-run homer over the opposite field fence in right, cutting the deficit in half and getting the Warriors off the mat.
PikeView’s response served as a swift takeout of the legs.
Smyth, who fared well throwing strikes, yielded a leadoff single and walked two of the next three batters to load the bases with one out, forcing East to pull him. It made little difference for the Panthers, who were locked in. An error at shortstop and back to back walks scored three more, loading the bases for Lyle. He promptly helped his own cause, lining a shot to left field that rolled to the fence, clearing the bases. The throw back into the infield got away from East and Lyle took advantage, strolling home for the seventh run of the inning and staking the hosts to an 11-2 advantage.
“We told them at the beginning, the Smyth kid we know him,” Wyatt said. “We knew he was going to be in the zone and he had a good off-speed pitch and he didn’t locate that today which helped us be able to hammer the fastball a little bit. After the two-run homer the focus was to get those two runs back. They have momentum coming back into the inning. I told our guys if we could steal those two runs back it suffocates you a little bit and takes that energy back out and I thought those guys not only did a good job getting those two but getting the big triple from Sammy helped space us.”
East had its opportunities to slash the lead or establish an advantage early but as was the case in their Tuesday loss at Independence the Warriors struggled with runners on base. They stranded nine total, leaving the bases loaded in the fifth and sixth innings.
PikeView worked out of those jams by avoiding Howard after his home run. He was intentionally walked twice with two on and two outs, a decision that paid off as he was stranded on first base both times.
“I don’t know what it is,” Wyoming East assistant coach Kevin Hedinger said. “Last night we struggled but we played hard and didn’t give up. Tonight I kind of thought we laid down a little bit when things started going bad and you just can’t do that. This is a sport where guys make millions failing 75 percent of the time. Bad things are going to happen, it’s just about how you handle it and we didn’t handle it very well tonight.”
Up next Wyoming East will travel to Princeton Friday while PikeView will travel to Bowen Field on Thursday to play Bluefield.
“It’s no secret we’ll go with Riffe,” Wyatt said of his pitching selection for the showdown with the Beavers who have won the last two sectional titles. “He was on two days rest and wasn’t available tonight but he’s fully available tomorrow night.”
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on twitter @tjack94
