YATES CENTER – Despite scoring a total of 21 runs here Tuesday, the Yates Center High School baseball team came up empty in the win column, dropping two high-scoring games against the Erie Red Devils.
Erie captured a sweep of the non-conference doubleheader, outscoring the Wildcats 14-11 in the opener and 18-10 in the nightcap. Yates Center fell to 4-12 on the year. The Wildcats were scheduled to host Marmaton Valley on Thursday (April 25) but those Three Rivers League games were postponed due to weather.
Barring a make-up date of those games, next up for Yates Center is a trip to Eureka on Thursday, May 2.
“Another couple of tough losses to take,” said YCHS head coach Jarrod McVey. “But I'm encouraged that we continue to get better and that the guys continue to work hard at practice and battle for each other in the games.”
Yates Center was in the thick of things in both games. The Wildcats were tied entering the final inning of the opener, and led 5-4 in the fourth inning of the nightcap until the Red Devils broke things open with a 10-run outburst.
“We’ve had multiple games this season – including these two against Erie – where we have started great and then we seem to give up one bad inning and-or strand way too many base runners,”
McVey noted. “But to our team’s credit, these guys fight back and never quit and they work hard every day to get better and I'm thankful to have guys like that.”
The Wildcats led 4-1 and 7-6 in the first game before falling behind 10-7. The ‘’Cats rallied with three runs in the bottom of the sixth to knot the game 10-all, but Erie outscored the hosts 4-1 in the seventh inning to pull out the 14-11 victory. Evan McVey had two hits for the Wildcats and Kaiden Rutherford rapped two RBI.
William Stackhouse scored three times while Jacob Meigs and Blake Morrison plated two runs apiece for YCHS. In the 18-10 nightcap, Yates Center again jumped out early, leading 5-2 after two innings and 5-4 after three before Erie exploded for 10 runs in the fourth inning. The Wildcats outscored the Devils 5-4 the rest of the way but the damage had been done.
McVey scored two runs and ripped three hits in the late game, while Rutherford, Morrison and Kevin Brown collected two hits each. Pitching continues to be an issue for the YCHS, as the Wildcat hurlers allowed a total of 25 hits and issued 16 walks in the doubleheader.