By Stephen Smoot
The Wildcats made a long trip for a short game last week when they traveled northward into Parsons for a contest with Tucker County. Pendleton County made short work of the affair, winning 16 to nothing in three innings.
Travis Owens started the game off with a walk on four straight pitches, then stole second on the first pitch tossed to Jaxon Simon. Owens has continued his blistering start to the season, hitting 10 times in 19 official at bats with 10 runs batted in. The fourth pitch, Simon sent into center for a double, sending the lone runner home for the initial run of the game. Chase Owens followed. His single on the first pitch tossed to him put runners on second and third.
Two batters later, Cole Harper, hitting .312 this season, sent a two balls and one strike pitch to the cavernous right field in Parsons. That drove in the second run and set runners at the corners. Mason Miller came to the plate and drove the ball into left field to score Chase Owens and put the advantage at 3-0 for the Wildcats.
Not nearly done, Cashton Kisamore swung at the first pitch and bounced it to third. Harper went home and Landon Davis, in as a courtesy runner, advanced to third base. Runners occupied the corners again for Cooper Smith, who hit into a sacrifice, but picked up the run batted in and set the score at 5-0.
With two outs and Kisamore on third, Connor Hartman took his base on four pitches, bringing back the top of the order in Travis Owens. Hartman stole second on the second delivery to Travis Owens, then scored when the ball was grounded into left field. Pendleton County then entered the bottom of the first with seven runs posted.
Miller took the mound in the bottom of the first. He has started off the season hot with a two and one record and a 2.00 earned run average. He sat down the opening batter on four pitches, but walked the second on five. The base runner went no further with Miller striking out the next batter and inducing the subsequent hitter to ground out with Noah Lockard securing the play at second.
Tucker County switched its pitchers for the second inning, but got similar results. Chase Owens took his base to open the top of the second, receiving four balls in five pitches. Two batters later, Harper got on base in the same way by the same number of pitches. Owens took third during the at bat. A walk issued to Miller put Wildcats on every base.
Pendleton County earned its eighth run when Kisamore waited out four pitches outside the strike zone. Smith took a base on balls in five deliveries to push the score to 9-0.
Another new Tucker County pitcher entered the game. Hartman took a count of two balls and no strikes, then singled back to the mound. One run came in, leaving the bases loaded for Travis Owens who laid down a soft bunt towards third base, which brought in Kisamore. All runners reached safely to set a full table for Simon. The freshman catcher has fared well at the plate this season with a .350 batting average. He walked on five pitches and picked up an RBI, setting the advantage at 12-0.
Chase Owens lifted the first pitch to center where it got misplayed by the defense. Hartman came home and the Wildcats led by 13. Four pitches to Mason Harper with the bases full pushed the score to 14-0. Next up, Miller hit a ball hard to center and rolled in with a double, picking up two RBIs.
Tucker County came up in the bottom of the second to try to avoid a mercy rule shortened contest. Miller set down the side in order, striking out the first two and allowing second baseman Lockard to help with the third.
Sam Yokum, head coach, deployed the reserves to help to close the game out. In the bottom of the third, the Smith to a two balls and one strike count. Cohen Hiett fielded the ball cleanly and fired the out to Davis at first. Chase Owens struck out the rest of the side in eight deliveries.
That concluded the game at 16-0.
Next on the schedule came a trip to East Hardy. Eight days earlier, the Cougars ambushed Wildcat pitching and won 17-7, but this game played out differently with a 6-0 loss. Though the home team posted two runs early, Chase Owens produced five and two-thirds innings of solid pitching. He allowed five earned runs and struck out eight to a team posting a little more than 13 per game thus far in the season.
