Whiteoak run-rules West Union to open conference slate

MOWRYSTOWN — The start of the Southern Hills Athletic Conference season began the best way possible for the Whiteoak Wildcats Tuesday evening.

Whiteoak used their pitching, defense and of course their offense to gain a five-inning, run-rule victory against the visiting West Union Dragons by a 10-0 score.

In their conference victory, a win that moved the Wildcats to 2-2 overall and 1-0 in the SHAC, the team from Mowrystown controlled the pace of the game from the very start, case in point being a five-run first inning where they sent 11 batters to the plate for five hits, three walks and even reached the bases with an error as well.

WHS finished the game with eight hits (three doubles), seven walks, two hit-by-pitches and one sacrifice.

“We started well offensively, and we finished well in the last inning,” WHS head coach Chris Veidt said. “Honestly, we have to do a better job of having the zero-to-zero mentality, and you hate to complain after a 10-run win, and I’m not, but the second through fourth innings I thought we lost our focus a little bit.

“We were opportunistic … I don’t think we hit the cover off the ball, but our young guys had some things we saw that was good to see. It was a good team effort.”

Jacob Burns led off the Wildcat half of the first inning with a walk, followed by a single from Traeten Hamilton. That was followed with a base hit from Trevor Martin, but in that span a base runner was thrown out for the first out, and Burns scored the first run of the game.

After the second out was recorded via strikeout, the Wildcats’ bats became scorching against the Dragons, with a double from Chase Carraher, a walk by Trever Yeager, a single from Brandon Lowe, a double by Evan Brill, a walk faced by Joey Oliver and Burns reaching base for the second time in the first inning, this time via error, before the third out was recorded.

Yeager led WHS with a 2-for-2 day at the plate with two walks and one run, Burns scored three runs and reached the bases on all four of his plate appearances (one walk, hit-by-pitch and two errors).

Besides the run scored by Burns, the Wildcats had Martin, Carraher, Yeager and Lowe all round the bases for the 5-0 lead. Gaining RBIs in the first inning were Martin and Brill, who had two off his double.

“We scored a lot of two-out runs (Tuesday),” Veidt said. “That was good to see, and it was a good way to start the league.”

In the second inning, the Wildcats added one run, this one from Kyle Marler, who initially reached the bases on a full-count walk. Marler was batted in by Yeager with a one-out single.

In the third, WHS scored another run with Burns crossing home plate following a balk by the Dragons pitcher. Burns led off the inning by reaching first on a hit-by-pitch, moved to second on a sacrifice, to third on a infield error and scored on the balk.

The final three runs came in the bottom of the fifth inning with Burns, Hamilton and Martin sealing the conference win. Burns began the game-winning inning reaching first on an infield error, followed by Hamilton also taking first base via error. Martin then walked, and runs scored as Marler reached the bases on the third West Union error of the inning.

Still in the fifth, the game was finished with Carraher being hit by a pitch and Yeager drawing a walk to see the 10th run of the game score.

Extra base hits from WHS were by Marler and Carraher, with seven batters totaling at least one hit.

On the mound, Carraher gained the win with a shutout performance. The sophomore allowed no runs on four hits and four walks in his first start of the season. Carraher struck out nine of the 22 batters he faced.

“Chase hadn’t been on the mound in a while … he was hurt, so he got better today, and that was good for him,” Veidt said.

Veidt spoke about the season after four games.

“I’m happy with where we are,” he said. “We saw some good pitching early on with South Webster and Paint Valley, and (Tuesday) we took care of business. Even in our scrimmages, we faced some very good competition and played good baseball. It is early, but at this point in time, I’m about as happy as I can be.”

The Wildcats are scheduled to play on Thursday, March 31 at Eastern Brown in a SHAC matchup, starting at 5 p.m.