The Whiteoak Wildcats baseball team (2-2, 1-0) started league play in the right way Tuesday night as they hosted and defeated Southern Hills Athletic Conference opponent West Union 10-0 in five innings.
Chase Carraher pitched all five innings for the Wildcats to pick up the win. He started the first inning a little shaky, allowing a double to the first batter and walking the second. He struck out the third batter he faced to keep runners at first and second but then loaded the bases with another walk to West Union’s cleanup hitter. Carraher was able to dig down and keep the runners from scoring as he struck out the next two batters he faced to end the inning.
Feeding off the momentum their pitcher had just given them, the ‘Cats went to the plate. They started early and they kept going. At the end of the first inning, the Whiteoak batter had collected five hits, two of them doubles from Carraher and Trevor Martin, and led 5-0 going into the second.
Carraher continued to get stronger as the game went along and the Wildcats kept giving him more of a lead to work with scoring one run in both the second and third. The ‘Cats were quiet in the fourth inning and went into the fifth with a 7-0 lead.
West Union put up very little of a threat in the top of the fifth inning, only able to get one runner to second base. Carraher struck out two in the inning, including one to end the inning, which would turn out to be his last batter of the night.
The Wildcats took advantage of costly walks and errors on the side of West Union in the bottom of the fifth inning to score three more runs, which ended the game in a run-rule, 10-0 win for Whiteoak.
“We probably need to do a better job of having a 0-0 mentality throughout the game,” said ‘Cats Head Coach Chris Veidt after the game. “I mean you hate to complain after you win 10-0, and I’m not, but I think in the second through the fourth, we kind of lost our focus a little bit.
“We scored a lot of two out runs and had a lot of two out hits in the first inning. That’s good to see. I don’t think we really knocked the cover off the ball, we were just really opportunistic tonight. It was a overall team effort and win and just a great way to start the out in the league. It’s early but I think at this point in time, I’m about as happy as I can be.”
Carraher picked up the win going all five innings allowing just two hits, giving up three walks and striking out eight.
Leading the Wildcats a the plate was Trever Yeager going 2-for-2 with a run scored. Traeton Hamilton, Trevor Martin, Kyle Marler, Chase Carraher, and Evan Brill all went 1-for-3 with Marler, Carraher and Brill collecting doubles. Senior Jacon Burns reached base all four times to the plate on two errors, a base on balls and hit by pitch and was able to come across the plate three times in the win.
The Wildcats will be back in action on Thursday, March 31 as they hit the road and travel to Eastern Brown for another SHAC matchup. That game will start at 5 p.m.
Reach Robert Stegbauer at 937-393-3456 ext. 1679 or on Twitter @RStegbauer.
