Young Eagles’ Varsity Baseball Squad Has Rough Beginning to Regular Season

The Watonga High School varsity baseball team opened up its 2020 regular season this past week on Monday, March 2 at home against Amber-Pocasset High School. The Eagles’ also traveled on March 3 to play at Amber-Pocasset, hit the road on March 6 to take on Waukomis High School, then concluded the week with a Saturday away game against Alva High School.

EAGLES 0, AMBER-POCASSET 10

A very young Eagles squad this year will have a lot of growing pains this year as Watonga started its 2020 campaign on March 3 at home vs. Amber-Pocasset, who is known to have elite baseball and softball programs almost every year.

That notion was certainly put on display over a two day period as the Panthers got off to a fast start against the Eagles and did not look back, cruising to a 10-0 victory in four innings vs. Watonga behind stellar Panthers’ pitching and heads-up base running.

Amber-Pocasset got five runs in the first inning, one run in the second, two runs in the third, and added two more in the fourth inning to put the mercy rule into play.

Panthers’ starting pitcher Chandler Brittain was almost flawless, pitching three innings of no-hit ball and allowing just two Watonga runners to reach base. Eagles’ senior outfielder Brandon Wiggins was hit by a pitch in the bottom of the first inning and also stole a base, while Watonga junior starting pitcher Joe Rinehart drew a walk that inning to give the Eagles a bit of an offensive threat to start the game. However, they were unable to cash in any runs.

Although Rinehart got off to a rocky start in the first inning and had some control issues with pitch location, he got into more of a rhythm as the game went along and struck out four Panthers hitters while allowing just five hits.

EAGLES 0, AMBER-POCASSET 12

In last Tuesday’s road game, the Eagles actually outhit the Panthers as Watonga had two hits to just one for Amber-Pocasset. Unfortunately for Watonga, five defensive errors and nine walks (including three hit batsmen) came back to completely haunt the Eagles as the Panthers were able to cash in on the mishaps.

For the Eagles, the freshman duo of Dakota Morris and Lance Beavers had one hit apiece during the loss as Watonga fell to 0-2 against very good competition.

EAGLES 5, WAUKOMIS 7

On March 6, Watonga played its best game of the early 2020 season on the road against Waukomis High School.

During the top of the first inning, despite their first two hitters getting out, Watonga was able to get an effective two-out rally going after Eagles’ shortstop Rinehart reached base on a dropped third strike and senior third baseman Wade McCrary singled. Both would later come around to score to put Watonga up 2-0, as Rinehart scored on an RBI walk by sophomore first baseman Wyatt Steed and a run scored by McCrary on a passed ball.

The Chiefs would then go bounce right back on offense and take a 6-2 lead that would hold until the top of the sixth inning.

Watonga used a big top of the sixth inning to get right back into the game, scoring three runs in the frame to cut the lead down to just 6-5. However, the Watonga rally would come up short as the Eagles fell to the Chiefs 7-5.

The Eagles’ star of the game had to certainly be sophomore pitcher Josh Wickware, who struck out a whopping 10 Waukomis batters in 6.0 innings pitched on the night. Although he walked four batters and Watonga was again hindered by defensive errors, only two of the seven runs Wickware allowed were earned runs.

McCrary finished the game with two of Watonga’s four hits and also scored two runs, while senior outfielder Ethan Henderson and freshman outfielder Ryan Walker had one hit apiece for the Eagles.

EAGLES 1, ALVA 12

On Saturday afternoon, Watonga traveled to neutral site Pioneer-Pleasant Vale High School to take on the Alva High School Goldbugs and was dealt a rough 12-1 loss.

Despite the lopsided score, the Eagles were haunted by one really rough inning in which they gave up 11 runs to the Goldbugs in the bottom of the third.

Watonga got its lone run and its only lead in the top of the first inning when McCrary lined an RBI single to center field that scored Wiggins.

After the Goldbugs tied the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the first, Alva was then able to take full advantage of the Eagles’ shaky pitching and defense.

Although Watonga had three hits and Alva had seven hits, the backbreaker for the Eagles was the 10 walks allowed to Goldbug hitters.

Up next on their schedule, the young Eagles’ varsity baseball team will look to bounce back and get in the win column at 11 a.m. on Friday, March 13 with hopes of getting some luck in their favor when Watonga travels to take on Mooreland High School.

The Eagles will then have a few days off before returning from Spring Break on March 19-20 at the Union City Festival baseball tournament, 4:30 p.m. on the road for a game against Ringwood High School, then March 26-28 for the annual Fairview Baseball Tournament.

Andrew Salmi can be reached at Sports@WatongaRepublican.com or by phone at (580) 623-4922.