SAND ROCK – Westbrook Christian pitcher Hugh Windle had five runs to play with early in game one of a Class 2A, Area 12 baseball doubleheader at Sand Rock on Thursday. He made the most of them in the second-ranked Warriors’ 11-2 victory.
Windle worked a complete game three-hitter with a walk and 18 strikeouts.
“He kept us off-balance,” Sand Rock coach Cody Short said. “We just couldn’t string too much together against him, but that’s going to come with time against guys like him. We’re young. I just tell them we live and we learn, so maybe we learned something today from seeing him. We’ll see.”
Short didn’t have long to wait and see. In the second game on Thursday, the Wildcats picked themselves up and scored five runs in the third inning and four more in the fourth to take a 9-7 victory.
“That was big for them to have a little bit of character about them and fight back. Any chance we get to play with us being so young and inexperienced, something good can come out of it. I was proud of them. I was proud of Austin (Yoder) coming in and throwing for us. We played good defense behind our pitching in that game, so that was good.”
In game one on Thursday, the Warriors (8-7) sent 10 batters to the plate in the first inning to chase Wildcat starter Zach Clanton from the game.
With a 5-0 lead, Windle could afford to pitch loosely, and he did. After surrendering a leadoff double to right by Slade StClair, he struck out eight of the next nine Wildcats (5-3) before giving up a run in bottom of the fourth.
Austin Yoder doubled to center and later scored to make it a 9-1 game. Caleb Yoder tripled to right field to lead off the bottom of the sixth and later scored a wild pitch for the final Sand Rock run of the game.
Catcher Jackson Bryant led the Warriors at the plate, going 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles and a walk. He drove in five runs, including three in the first inning on a double to center. Cameron White, Brodie Self and Hayes Wiggins each added a pair of hits.
Westbrook once again jumped out to an early lead on the Wildcats in the second game. The Warriors scored four runs in the second and two more in the third to take a 6-0 lead before Sand Rock rallied.
The Wildcats batted around in the bottom of the third and scored five runs. They sent 10 batters to the plate in the fourth and scored four more runs – including three on walks with the bases loaded – for the final.
Jake Middlebrooks, Caiden Bullard and Caleb Yoder had the lone hits for Sand Rock. Cameron Gifford walked twice. StClair, Brian Giles, Austin Yoder, Morgan Tucker and Peyton Williams each drew a walk.
Austin Yoder picked up the win in relief of Caleb Yoder in the second inning.
Andrew Martin led the Warriors with a pair of hits. Morgan Prater delivered a two-run single in the second inning.