It was Marceline and Westran that hammered out wins on Friday as the Class 2-District 7 Baseball Tournament being held in Fayette opened up with first-round action which was heard on KMMO-AM. With both contests decided by early-inning explosions, Marceline wrapped up the doubleheader by defeating Slater, 9-2. That followed Westran’s 17-1 pummeling of BKN Thunder which ended after just three innings of play.
As a result, the Tigers and Hornets now advance to Monday’s semifinal round where top-seeded Salisbury meets Westran in a 4 matchup prior to second-seeded Fayette taking on Marceline at 6.
The nightcap saw the Tigers get the drop on Slater by scoring six times in the bottom of the first, thanks to six hits and three Wildcat errors. Cody Rogers and Cody Lowe both tripled as part of the outburst while Harper Van Zee
tacked on a double.
Slater scored in only the top of the third as they dented home plate twice with Ben Gochenour and Tristen Klasing both pounding triples which was followed up by Isaac Larson’s single. To their credit, the Wildcats stayed within striking distance until the sixth inning when Marceline sandwiched three walks and an error around Cody Rogers’ two-run single which helped wrap things up at 9-2.
It was Cody Rogers who paced the Tigers’ 11-hit attack with three hits, three RBI and two runs scored while Trace Huber added two singles, an RBI and a run scored of his own.
Slater ended up with seven hits. Ben Gochenour tripled and singled while Maddox Tyler tacked on two singles as well. At times the Wildcats were their own worst enemy by committing five errors along the way. Freshman hurler Jace Freeman fired five and a third innings while striking out nine for the Tigers who improved to 12-8 on the year. Slater ended their season at 7-11 as Tristan Klasing pitched well into the sixth before he ran out of gas.
In Friday’s first game, Westran avenged the 10-1 loss they suffered to BKN Thunder a month ago by blasting their way to a three-inning, 17-1 decision over the CLAA Conference school this time around. The Hornets put three runs on the board in the top of the first before sending 12 batters to the plate during the second and third as they scored seven times in both of those frames.
The winners did all of this on the strength of just six hits as a half-dozen Hornets had one safety apiece with eight different Westran batters driving home one run during the onslaught. Gage Boeger, Cody Boeger and Jackson Link scored three times each for the winners with Evan Barnett, Gage Adler and Kale Courtney all denting home plate twice in addition. Hampton Summers pitched three innings of two-hit ball for the Hornets who are now 11-9 overall.
The offense for BKN Thunder was limited to a hit and a run scored by Sawyer Barnett while Luke Manson had an RBI double for the losing side who made six errors on the day and ended their season with a record of 15-3.