Whiteoak Wildcats cruise to sectional victory
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
MOWRYSTOWN — The Whiteoak Wildcats took care of business on their home field Wednesday evening, gaining a Division IV SE District Sectional victory in five innings, defeating the visiting Portsmouth Clay Panthers by a 10-0 score.
The win gives the No. 4 seeded Wildcats a sectional championship in the tournament opener, plus moves them on to the district semifinals on Sunday, May 15 when they face No. 1 seeded Glouster Trimble at 1 p.m. at VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe. Trimble won their game over No. 9 seeded Beaver Eastern by a 10-1 score.
WHS (16-12 overall) split their scoring in half against their opponent from the Southern Ohio Conference (Clay was a No. 5 seed) by taking a 5-0 lead after the first inning, then scoring their final five runs in the bottom of the fifth to secure the run-rule win, giving the Wildcats four wins in their past five games, including two wins against Clay as they defeated them at WHS last week during the regular season.
“We played good defense, had a double play, almost had a couple more and the guys came ready to play with the five-run first,” WHS head coach Chris Veidt said. “Baseball is different from other sports. Unlike football, where you are running over people, or basketball, where you are just taller and quicker than others, with baseball sometimes you have to sit back and wait for things to happen, and they did. The guys finished well, started well and played great defense.”
As for the postseason game on Wednesday, Whiteoak’s Jacob Burns opened the bottom of the first inning with a lead-off base hit, followed by taking second and third bases on walks forced by teammates Kyle Marler and Trevor Martin with no outs. A fly ball hit to left field by Chase Carraher allowed Burns to score for the 1-0 advantage.
From there, Marler and Martin rounded the bases, as did Trever Yeager and Traeten Hamilton, with Yeager taking first base on a fielder’s choice and Hamilton reaching the bases initially on a base hit. Also drawing walks in the inning (WHS totaled five walks in the first) were Casey Nace, Joey Oliver and Burns in his second at-bat of the first reached base with a walk.
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“Traeten Hamilton offensively was superb,” Veidt said.
Burns led the Wildcats with a 2-for-4 game at the plate, as did Hamilton, who was 2-for-3.
WHS didn’t have another base runner until the bottom of the fifth, when they added five more runs to end the game early with a 10-run advantage.
In the Wildcat fifth inning, Martin, Carraher, Yeager, Evan Brill and Hamilton all scored runs as WHS totaled five hits in the inning, along with one walk and one hit-by-pitch.
With one hit each for WHS were Carraher, Brill, Nace and Oliver. In all, the Wildcats totaled eight hits and six walks.
On the mound, Brill was the winning pitcher. He allowed just two hits, three walks and no runs in the five-inning game. Brill finished with two strikeouts, both coming in the fifth inning.
“Evan, being a freshman out there in his first tournament game, kept his composure, got us a lot of ground balls, and it was just a good game,” Veidt said. “At tournament time, you are never positively sure what is going to happen. There were some jitters early on, and the strike zone wasn’t exactly big, but he didn’t change his composure and was very business-like.”
The win gives the No. 4 seeded Wildcats a sectional championship in the tournament opener, plus moves them on to the district semifinals on Sunday, May 15 when they face No. 1 seeded Glouster Trimble at 1 p.m. at VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe. Trimble won their game over No. 9 seeded Beaver Eastern by a 10-1 score.
WHS (16-12 overall) split their scoring in half against their opponent from the Southern Ohio Conference (Clay was a No. 5 seed) by taking a 5-0 lead after the first inning, then scoring their final five runs in the bottom of the fifth to secure the run-rule win, giving the Wildcats four wins in their past five games, including two wins against Clay as they defeated them at WHS last week during the regular season.
“We played good defense, had a double play, almost had a couple more and the guys came ready to play with the five-run first,” WHS head coach Chris Veidt said. “Baseball is different from other sports. Unlike football, where you are running over people, or basketball, where you are just taller and quicker than others, with baseball sometimes you have to sit back and wait for things to happen, and they did. The guys finished well, started well and played great defense.”
As for the postseason game on Wednesday, Whiteoak’s Jacob Burns opened the bottom of the first inning with a lead-off base hit, followed by taking second and third bases on walks forced by teammates Kyle Marler and Trevor Martin with no outs. A fly ball hit to left field by Chase Carraher allowed Burns to score for the 1-0 advantage.
From there, Marler and Martin rounded the bases, as did Trever Yeager and Traeten Hamilton, with Yeager taking first base on a fielder’s choice and Hamilton reaching the bases initially on a base hit. Also drawing walks in the inning (WHS totaled five walks in the first) were Casey Nace, Joey Oliver and Burns in his second at-bat of the first reached base with a walk.
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“Traeten Hamilton offensively was superb,” Veidt said.
Burns led the Wildcats with a 2-for-4 game at the plate, as did Hamilton, who was 2-for-3.
WHS didn’t have another base runner until the bottom of the fifth, when they added five more runs to end the game early with a 10-run advantage.
In the Wildcat fifth inning, Martin, Carraher, Yeager, Evan Brill and Hamilton all scored runs as WHS totaled five hits in the inning, along with one walk and one hit-by-pitch.
With one hit each for WHS were Carraher, Brill, Nace and Oliver. In all, the Wildcats totaled eight hits and six walks.
On the mound, Brill was the winning pitcher. He allowed just two hits, three walks and no runs in the five-inning game. Brill finished with two strikeouts, both coming in the fifth inning.
“Evan, being a freshman out there in his first tournament game, kept his composure, got us a lot of ground balls, and it was just a good game,” Veidt said. “At tournament time, you are never positively sure what is going to happen. There were some jitters early on, and the strike zone wasn’t exactly big, but he didn’t change his composure and was very business-like.”