Wildcats baseball starts the 2023 season with a rout of Cloverdale

After an exciting 2022 season, the Ukiah High School varsity baseball team looks to continue their excellent play heading into a new season.

The Wildcats will be returning at least five players from last year's championship run while the team will have new faces who will look to contribute to another chance at a title.

The Wildcats opened the 2023 baseball season with their first non league game when they hosted Cloverdale on an extremely cold night Feb. 21.

The air may have been cold but the Wildcats' bats were hot like a California Summer day. The team showed no mercy (even though score wise they mercied Cloverdale), winning 22-1.

The Wildcats scored five runs in their first at bat of the '23 season. Trenton Ford reached base on a fielding error by the second baseman and advanced to second on the same error.

Trevor Schlafer walked and Kessler Koch was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Hunter Schnitzius drove in Ford on a sac fly to right. Schlafer scored on a wild pitch. New member of the varsity squad, and Junior, Talen Maxwell drives one to right for an inside-the-park homerun scoring Koch and Luke Schat.

The hit and run barrage continued into the second inning when the Wildcats put up a 15 spot. Luke Schat with a double and Senior Nic Avalos tripled in the inning. Sophmore Takoda Newman also contributed with a single and an rbi.

The Wildcats added two more runs in the third inning and that was all they needed as the game was called after four innings due to mercy rule.

Avalos had two hits and drove in five runs. Maxwell had two hits, scored three times and drove in four runs. Luke Schat went 2-3, scored three times and drove in three runs.

Luke Schat pitched two innings without giving up a hit. He walked one and struck out 6. Junior Cannon Johnson pitched the final two innings and gave up one run on one hit. He walked two and struck out three.

The Wildcats will travel to Santa Rosa on Friday, March 3 to take on the Vikings at 7 p.m. They will then take on Northgate on Saturday at 3 p.m.

The Wildcats will host Eureka on Friday, March 10 at 7 p.m. They will then turn around and play Eureka again on Saturday, March 11 at 1 p.m. Then they will host St. Vincent de Paul at 7 p.m.