This past week began for the Wauzeka-Steuben Baseball team with a loss to the Seneca Royals and ended with a loss to the Royals and in between those two losses were a pair of Hornet victories.
Wauzeka-Steuben traveled to Seneca last Monday, May 11 looking to spoil the Royals hopes of staying in conference title contention. The Hornets took an early 2-0 lead with a pair of runs in the top of the first inning but the lead wouldn’t last long as the Royals scored three times in the bottom of the inning to go up 3-2. Seneca would add two more runs in the second and three more in the fifth inning to extend their lead to 8-2 before the Hornets began to mount a comeback with three runs in the sixth and one in the seventh. The comeback was stopped just short as the Royals held on for the 8-6 win.
Cooper Lomas started on the mound for the Hornets, allowing five runs (three earned) on six hits and three walks with one strikeout in 2.1 innings pitched as he took the loss. Ryder Fralick finished the game in relief of Lomas, allowing three runs (zero earned) on two hits and one walk with six strikeouts in 3.2 innings pitched.
W-S had nine hits as a team in the loss, with Lomas (3-for-4 with a double and three runs scored) and Mason Johnson (3-for-3 with one run scored and one RBI) accounting for six of those nine team hits. The other three hits were singles by Clint Mitchell, Josh Martin and Brody Ray.
Wauzeka was back home the next afternoon to host the Brookwood Falcons in a non-conference contest. The visiting Falcons got on the scoreboard first with three runs in the top of the third inning but it was the Hornets turn to answer quickly, as W-S returned the favor in their half of the third inning with three runs of their own to tie the game 3-3. The score remained the same until the bottom of the fifth inning when the Hornets scored twice to take a 5-3 lead that they would hold on to for the rest of the game to snap a six-game losing streak with the win.
Martin got the start on the mound and earned a complete game victory, allowing just three runs on eight hits and zero walks with seven strikeouts in the win. Bentley Dums (2-for-4) had two of the Hornets five hits to lead the W-S offense. Mitchell, Theo Millin and Wyatt Mullikin each had a base hit in the game.
The Kickapoo Panthers traveled to Wauzeka last Thursday, May 14 for the Ridge & Valley Conference matchup and scored twice in the top of the first inning to go up 2-0 on the Hornets. After a scoreless first at-bat, the Hornet bats woke up by producing four runs in both the second and third innings to take an 8-2 lead before adding one more in the bottom of the sixth inning for the final score of 9-2.
Lomas (two runs allowed on six hits and two walks with eight strikeouts in 6.2 innings pitched) got the win for Wauzeka with Fralick (zero runs allowed on one hit and zero walks with one strikeout) getting the final out to cement the win.
The Hornets offense got multi-hit games from Mitchell (2-for-4 with one run scored and one RBI), Millin (2-for-4 with two runs scored) and Martin (2-for-3 with a double, two runs scored and one RBI). Lomas and Dums each had a hit in the win.
Wauzeka-Steuben ended the week by hosting Seneca last Friday and the Royals offense burst out of the gates with a six-run first inning. The Hornets got one run back but the Royals extended their lead to 10-1 with three runs in the second inning and one run in the third. W-S pushed two runs across in the third and fourth innings to make it a 10-5 game but the Royals offense produced three more runs in the fifth and one more in the top of the seventh inning to defeat the Hornets by the score of 14 to 5.
Fralick (nine runs allowed on eight hits and one walk with three strikeouts in 2.0 innings pitched) started at pitcher for the Hornets and was dealt the loss. Ray (five runs allowed on seven hits and four walks with one strikeout in 5.0 innings) also pitched for the Hornets in the loss.
Lomas (3-for-4 with a home run, one run scored and two RBIs) led the Hornets offense in the loss, which included a solo home run in the first inning. Dakota Cox (2-for-2) and Mullikin (2-for-3 with one RBI) also had multi-hit games for W-S. The Hornets also got base hits from Cody Wagner, Mitchell, Millin, Dums and Martin as part of a 12-hit attack by Wauzeka.
The Hornets (5-11 overall, 3-8 in the Ridge & Valley Conference) began this week on the road when they traveled to Stoddard on Monday to take on De Soto before ending the regular season this Thursday evening with a doubleheader at home against Ithaca.
