New Richmond – It had been five days since Wyoming East last played a game with weather and cancelations plaguing its spring break.
It showed early for the Warriors in a doubleheader matchup against Summers County on Thursday, but once they shook the cobwebs they were ready.
The Warriors scored nine straight runs across two games in New Richmond to top the Bobcats 3-1 and 6-3.
With East pitcher Garrett Mitchell laboring through the first three innings – allowing six base runners – he limited the damage to just a run before the Warriors’ bats all woke up at once.
The end result was a three-run first inning in the first game that featured seven consecutive batters reaching base – five of them on hits.
“I think the second time around or the third you know what the man throws,” Wyoming East coach Ron “Chief” Mayhew said. “You’re in tune with him but the first time around he’s kind of got the advantage on you.”
Summers, which stranded two runners each in the first and second innings, struck first when Brandon Isaac singled and later advanced to third on a wild pitch. Xander Hudgins brought him home with a two-out single and Grady Allen followed by reaching on a walk, his second of the game and the fourth free pass Mitchell issued up to that point. But as he had in the previous two innings, the junior hurler found his way out of the inning by inducing a groundout to limit the damage.
“We’ve been working on things,” Mayhew said. “What we need to do to get out of a jam and executing when we need an out and we did that for the most part.”
In the bottom of the frame Mitchell received all of the run support he’d need.
Damion Brown started the rally with a one-out double, reaching third on a passed ball and scoring when Tanner Whitten stroked his own double. The Bobcats made the decision to intentionally walk No. 3 hitter Jacob Howard and Mitchell hit into a fielder’s choice behind him, putting runners at the corners with two outs.
At the turning point Hayden Blankenship had an answer, hitting an RBI single that broke the tie and plated Whitten. Zach Hunt followed with his own run-scoring single to account for the third and final East run of the opening game.
Mitchell had little trouble holding the lead, allowing just two runners to reach the rest of the way, one on a fielder’s choice.
In the second game East kept the bats rolling, scoring four runs in the first inning and tacking on two more in the second. Whitten and Blankenship were again hot at the plate, picking up two hits each with Whitten driving in two runs and Blankenship one.
The trouble came in the final two innings though as Summers put one on the board in the fourth and two more in the fifth, loading the bases to bring the tying run to the plate. After a hit batsman drove in a run to make it 6-3, East brought on Caden Cook to secure the final out and he did just that, inducing a bases-loaded groundout to secure the sweep.
It was a painful finish for a Bobcat squad that stranded runners throughout the evening.
“That’s been an issue all season long,” Summers head coach Stan Unroe said. “We play a ton of freshmen and a lot of sophomores and when you’re young like that sometimes the moment’s too big. But these kids are growing and they’re getting better every game and we felt like we came here and battled tonight against a really good baseball team and had opportunities in both games. We just haven’t been able to get it done but we’ve got about eight or 10 more games to get ready for the sectional and hopefully by then we’ll have all this worked out.”
East improves to 9-5 and will travel to Mount View on Tuesday. Summers County drops to 2-11 and will host Lincoln County on Friday.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
Game 1
SC: 001 00 – 1 3 4
WE: 003 0x – 3 5 0
Pitching and Catching – SC: J. Boone and G. Allen; WE: G.Mitchell and J. Ellison. WP: Mitchell, LP: Boone,
Hitting – SC: B. Isaacs 2-3, X. Hudgins 1-3 (RBI); WE: D. Brown 1-2, T. Whitten 1-2 (RBI), H.Blankenship 1-2 (RBI), Z. Hunt 1-2 (RBI), J. Ellison 1-2.
Game 2
SC: 000 12 – 3 1 1
WE: 420 0x – 6 12 0
Pitching and Catching – SC: T. Gill (3 IP), B. Isaac (1 IP) and B. Lane; WE: D. Brown (2 IP), T. Whitten (1.2 IP), Z. Hunt (0.1 IP), C. Griffith (0.2 IP) and J. Ellison and C. Stewart.
Hitting – SC: B. Lane 1-3; WE: D. Brown 1-2, J. Howard 2-2 (2B, RBI), T. Whitten 2-3 (2B, 2 RBI), H.Blankenship 2-3 (RBI), B.Hunt 1-2, C. Stewart 1-1, G. Mitchell 1-1, Z. Hunt 1-1, R. Mills 1-1 (RBI)
