High School Baseball: Yates Center Wildcats
Yates Center baseball dropped to .500 on the season after getting swept at home by West Elk on Thursday.
The Wildcats dropped a close one late in game one 6-4 before losing 15-9 in game two to move to 3-3.
The Wildcats had to rally big time after falling behind 4-0 after four innings in game one. Yates Center got on the board with two runs in the bottom of the fifth before West Elk responded right back with two runs in the top of the sixth to push their lead back out to four.
The Wildcats got another two runs in the bottom of the sixth to get back within two but despite holding the Patriots scoreless in the top of the seventh, they couldnt get those two runs across in the final frame to tie it up.
Asher Sievers and Braydon Gaulding led the Wildcats offensively with two hits from Sievers and a hit and two RBIs from Gaulding to go along with a walk.
Starter Caden Graham was saddled with the loss, allowing four runs (three earned) on four hits and five walks in three innings. Graham struck out four batters.
In game two, the Wildcats took a very brief, one-run lead in the bottom of the first before the Patriots ran away with the game.
West Elk scored nine runs in the second, third and fourth innings, taking a commanding 10-2 lead.
The Wildcats had an answer, scoring four runs in the bottom of the fourth and another run in the bottom of the fifth to get within three, but West Elk kept piling on, scoring five runs in the last two innings to thwart any chance at a Wildcat rally.
Sievers was the starter and earned the loss, allowing eight runs on nine hits and two walks with zero strikeouts in 3.2 innings.
Dalton Brittain, Asher Sievers, Connor Griffith and Nolan Jones had two-hit days and Tytan Smoot drove in two runs on a hit.
The Wildcats will host Marmaton Valley on Monday for a doubleheader starting at 3:30.
