Wolverines shut out Chargers
MABEN – This week is a big one for the Class 3A, Region 4 baseball run as both the East Webster Wolverines and Choctaw County Chargers are on the hunt for a regular season district championship.
The Wolverines hosted game one of the series on Tuesday after the game was pushed back due to weather and, ultimately, changed locations to Cumberland as East Webster had the better field conditions. An immaculate start from Jordan Gaskin set the tone as the Wolverines dominated game one 10-0 in just five innings.
“It's always a battle when you play them,” East Webster head coach Bake Hutchison
said. “You can throw the records out the window. It's always going to be tough. Jordan was great and that's why I wanted to start him. He's just so consistent and doesn't walk people. He pounds the defense and he pounds the strike zone to let them work.”
Gaskin's effort was one to remember against the Chargers. The sophomore threw 4.2 innings and gave up just two hits and a walk. Most impressive was the fact he struck out 13 batters out of 14 possible outs.
Only three players reached against Gaskin as Choctaw County was struggling against the Wolverine left hander all night.
“The off-speed pitch was really good and he probably threw it 60-65% of the time and we didn't do a good job adjusting to it,” Charger coach Ben Tillman said. “It basically kind of blew us up and kept us off of our feet. Obviously, we didn't do a very good job preparing for that leading up to this and that's on us.”
Choctaw County threw strikes consistently, but the defense had too many miscues in the game. The Chargers had four errors that proved to be costly. Zabaius Miller started the game and surrendered nine hits and eight runs with one walk and four strikeouts in 3.1 innings.
Moss Bruce pitched one inning in relief and gave up four hits, two runs and two walks.
The last two innings were where the damage was really done for East Webster. Leading 3-0 heading into the fourth, the Wolverines scored six runs that frame to push the lead out to 9-0. Kaleb Warnock walked off the game in the fifth with his RBI single and gave the team a run rule.
It was a 13-hit night for East Webster and just about everyone got in on the party. Ethan Hillhouse, Stetson Perkins, Warnock, Mason Richardson and Cade Morrow all finished with two hits in the game as eight of the nine hitters in the lineup recorded a hit.
Warnock drove in three runs in the win while Richardson had two RBI.
Perkins was 2-for-3 with two runs scored, a walk and an RBI and he put on quite a show motoring around the bases.
“He's just a hard-nosed player that gives it 110% on the bases,” Hutchison said of
Perkins. “He can do things that nobody else can do and is probably the fastest kid I've ever coached. He's fun to watch.”
Choctaw County fell to 6-10 for the year and 2-2
in Region 4 play. The Wolverines (13-2, 3-0 Region 4) continued their hot start to the season and they are neck and neck with Mooreville for the lead in the division.
East Webster will try to continue that on Thursday while the Chargers look to spring the upset in Ackerman with a rematch set for 7 p.m.