MOUND CITY – Once again, the Yates Center High School baseball team put up a battle, but couldn’t put a full game together, as the Wildcats dropped both ends of a doubleheader to Jayhawk-Linn here Thursday.
Jayhawk-Linn defeated Yates Center 14-10 in the opener, then pulled away late to post a 14-4 triumph to complete the Three Rivers League sweep.
Yates Center, now 4-8 overall on the season, was scheduled to travel to Cherokee on Monday, April15, to face Southeast High School in another TRL twinbill.
“We got off to a slow start in Game 1 and made some mistakes that allowed Jayhawk-Linn to take the lead early, but to our boys credit they battled back and never quit,” said YCHS head coach Jarrod McVey. “Then in Game 2, we started out well, but we just could not capitalize on several scoring opportunities.”
In the opener, Jayhawk-Linn slowly but surely built a 10-2 lead, but the Wildcats clawed back with five runs in the sixth inning to close within 10-7. However, the Jayhawks responded with four runs of their own in the bottom of the sixth. Yates Center tallied another three runs in the seventh to make the final 14-10.
Evan McVey and Kaiden Rutherford had two hits apiece for YC. McVey scored three runs while William Stackhouse and Keagan Tadlock each crossed home twice.
Hall had three hits and scored three runs for Jayhawk-Linn, while Spencer ripped two hits and had three RBI.
In the nightcap, the Wildcats grabbed an early 3-0 lead after two innings. The Jayhawks rallied back to take the lead, but Yates Center trailed just 6-4 until the bottom of the fifth, when Jayhawk-Linn exploded for eight runs to win by run rule.
Stackhouse was the offensive star for Yates Center, ripping a home run and a triple and scoring two of the ’Cats four runs.
Spencer pounded out two more hits, scored three runs and had three more RBI for the winners, while four other Jayhawks scored two runs apiece.
“Despite the losses, I have seen so much growth out of these guys,” McVey noted, “and I know that when we put it all together for seven innings great things can and will happen.”