The Whiteoak Wildcats improved their record to 13-0 in an impressive showing against the Georgetown G-Men 15-0 in five innings on Thursday evening. The Wildcats entered play 12-0 and didn’t waste anytime putting away their 13th opponent in the 2018 season.
Ryan Roberts took the hill for the Wildcats for his first varsity start of the campaign and made quick work of the G-Men in the top of the first. G-Men pitcher Isaac Holland found it difficult to find the strike zone from the opening pitch.
After leadoff man Traeton Hamilton reached on a hit-by-pitch and Roberts reached via walk, Holland found the zone for a batter by obtaining a strikeout on the next batter he faced. Clean-up hitter Caleb West did his job by blasting a line drive that cleared the left field fence to stake the Wildcats to an early 3-0 lead.
The Wildcats added another run in the inning on a baulk by Holland that plated Chase Carraher to take a 4-0 lead to the second frame.
Roberts fanned the side in the top half of the second to achieve a shutdown inning and hold the tally to a 4-0 Wildcat lead. The G-Men opted to make an early pitching change, bringing in first baseman Blake Miles to attempt to shutdown the hot bats of the Wildcats.
Miles found early success in the frame achieving two quick outs. What has become of a staple of the Wildcats ball club has been the ability to hit with two outs, which once again game to fortition in the bottom of the second. After T. Yeager reached on a single and West reached on a base-on balls, Carraher drove in Yeager on an error by the G-Men shortstop to push the lead to 5-0.
Five-hole hitter Mason Lehr stepped to the plate and pulled a double down the left field line to extend the lead to 7-0 for two more two-out runs. Coach Veidt has been beyond impressed by his teams’ ability to achieve runs with two-outs by simply saying, “we scored 11 two-out runs tonight,” with a speechless grin on his face.
The G-Men finally got a runner on base in the top of the third via hit batter. Roberts proceeded to fan the next man he faced for the second out of the inning but allowed a base hit to the G-Men leadoff man and plunked a second man to load the bases. With the bases loaded and the three-hole hitter at the plate, it seemed like a critical time for the G-Men to break into the run column but failed to do so with a strikeout by Roberts to end the inning.
The Wildcats blew the game wide open in the bottom of the third by batting around and plating five more runs to extend the lead to 12-0. The old baseball adage of “just put the ball in play” worked wonders for the Wildcats who took advantage of four errors by the G-Men to all but put the game away.
The Wildcats added three more in the bottom of the fourth for safe measure to extend the lead to 15-0 which would end up being the final tally of the ballgame. Mason Lehr took over for Roberts in the top half of the fifth to finish the ballgame. Coach Veidt said after the game, “Ryan pitched a great game.” Caleb West led the way at the plate for the Wildcats, driving in five runs in total.
The Wildcats try to defend their home diamond once again tomorrow evening in an SHAC matchup against Manchester. First pitch is at 5 p.m.
Softball
The Whiteoak Lady Cats saw their respective two-game winning streak come to an end at the hands of the Georgetown Lady G-Men, losing 8-1. The Lady Cats found it tough going at the plate pushing across only one run. The Lady G-Men, however, used a four-run third inning to set the tone and cruise to an 8-1 victory on the road.
The Lady Cats look to get back in the win column tomorrow evening against Manchester at home. First pitch is at 5 p.m.
Spencer Michael is a stringer for The Times-Gazette.
