COLONY — It was quick work when the Crest High baseball team took down Marmaton Valley at home on Thursday afternoon.
A pair of Lancer (4-0) pitchers combined to allow only one run through two games, eight innings because of run-rule limits in each game. Crest’s bats shined much like they did at Jayhawk-Linn last week and the Lancers secured victories of 15-0 and 11-1.
Game one
Trevor Church got the start on the mound for Crest and he allowed only one hit and struck out seven Wildcats through three innings. The Lancers were able to get on Marmaton Valley pitcher Kason Becker for 15 runs in three innings.
Rogan Weir drove in a team-high five runs while Kaelin Nilges and Ryan Golden each knocked in two runs. Jack White and Weir’s pair of hits apiece also contributed to the scoring entourage.
Lancers Holden Barker, Jenson Barker and Karter Miller also each drove in one run.
“I think everybody performed well at the plate. Their job is to just put the ball in play as hard as they can,” said Crest head coach Roland Weir. “The approaches were good, lots of walks, we didn’t swing at bad pitches, so overall pretty good.”
“They’re all swinging hard and our hitting is advanced,” Weir said. “Defensively, we’ve still got to clean things up.”
To paint a picture of how efficient Church was on the mound for Crest is that he only needed to face 12 batters to make nine outs and get through three innings. Seven of the outs Church recorded were strikeouts, all of them swinging.
Wildcats Tyler Lord and Becker reached base on infield errors while Dominic Smith singled in the top of the third inning for Marmaton Valley’s only three base runners.
Game two
Weir went with another reliable senior arm to start on the mound in game two when Avery Blaufuss worked five innings, allowing only one unearned run and two hits. He also struck out 13 Wildcats.
“He (Avery) worked ahead of hitters, he was throwing his curveball for strikes and he’s got a good fastball,” Weir said. “Drake called a good game behind the plate so I was pleased. The top three guys, Trevor, Stetson and Avery, I don’t worry about at all.”
When Weir drove home a run on an RBI double to center field in the bottom of the third, it gave Crest an early 3-0 lead. Blaufuss then stepped to the plate and drove home another run with an RBI single to center and the 4-0 advantage.
Golden then stretched the Lancer lead to five runs on an RBI single to center for the 5-0 edge before Drake Weir and Church singled home runs for the 7-0 lead in the third inning.
