MORAN — Marmaton Valley High’s Wildcats went into their home opener Thursday with a win in the 2012 season. The season started Monday for Marmaton Valley with two losses.
Things are all even now.
Marmaton Valley notched non-league wins of 6-0 and 8-6 over Yates Center High’s Wildcats. Yates Center is also even at 4-4.
“We did a great job both sides of the ball in the first game. We need better productions out of our top three batters but the rest did enough to get the job done,” said Derek Scharff, MVHS head coach. “Jimmy (Frye) did a great job pitching and we fielded the ball well behind him.”
Frye threw a three-hit shutout against Yates Center. He walked two and struck out nine batters.
Marmaton Valley broke a scoreless tie with four runs in the second. It added single runs in the third and fourth innings.
Daylen Houk led the Marmaton Valley offense, going 3-for-3, with a double and two singles plus drove in two runs. Taylor Lhuillier hit two singles.
Hitting a single each were Sage Hall, Ryan Smith and Gage Stewart.
In the second game, Marmaton Valley let a 3-0 lead slip away. After Yates Center scored three runs in the top of the third to tie it, Marmaton Valley regained the lead scoring two runs in its half of the inning.
Again, Yates Center plated three runs and took a 6-5 lead in the fifth inning. Marmaton Valley responded with a tying run in its half of the frame.
Marmaton Valley was able to produce two runs in the sixth to claim an 8-6 lead. It stood up for the victory.
Cole Becker was Marmaton Valley’s starting pitcher but took a no-decision. Becker worked five innings, allowing six runs on five hits and four walks. He struck out four.
Derrick Carr came on in relief and got the pitching victory. He didn’t give up a hit or a run and struck out four in two innings of work.
“Derrick came in and did a great job pitching, shutting them down the last two innings,” Scharff said. “Other than a couple innings where we struggled to throw strikes we played pretty well overall.”
Scharff said Marmaton Valley had a couple of fielding mistakes in the second game and had a couple of bad decisions running the bases. He said they had better production from the top of the lineup in this game.
