Mistakes do in Wildcats

ARMA — A handful of untimely mistakes did in Marmaton Valley High’s baseball team Monday.
The Wildcats dropped a third strike that would have ended host Northeast-Arma’s fifth inning, but when the ball skipped past the catcher, the batter reached first base and a runner on third base scored, Coach Derek Scharff said.
The run erased a 2-1 Marmaton Valley lead. The game stayed even until Northeast pushed across a run in the eighth inning to win, 3-2.
The Vikings completed the sweep with a six-run fifth inning, erasing a 6-3 Wildcat lead. Northeast added three more runs in the bottom of the sixth to win, 12-6.
The defeats were the first two of the season for Marmaton Valley (4-2), although there were a number of positives, Scharff said.
“We have to clean up the fielding and get some timely hits and we will be all right,” Scharff said. “We can compete with anyone in our league.”
Marmaton Valley is scheduled to host undefeated Central Heights in a doubleheader Thursday. “They will be tough, so we will need to bring our ‘A’ game,” Scharff said.
In Monday’s opener, Wildcat starting pitcher Jimmy Frye kept Northeast under control, striking out 12 in 7 1/3 innings, with two walks and four hits.
“Jimmy pitched a great game,” Scharff said. “We put the bat on the ball, but couldn’t find any holes. It seems like we hit right at them every time, and they made plays. We had a couple base running errors that cost us a run or two. We played hard the entire game, and couldn’t pull it out.”
Cole Becker and Chris Bowman each had singles and RBIs for the Wildcats, while Sage Hall and Ryan Smith each had singles and runs. Keagan Boyd went 2-for-3 with a pair of singles.
Marmaton Valley led 4-0 after one inning, but struggled the next six, Scharff noted.
“We looked like we would roll right through them,” Scharff said. “We had one horrific inning, where we walked a few batters and threw the ball all over the field, making mistake after mistake. They got some timely hits with people on base.”
Marmaton Valley looked to respond in the sixth, loading the bases, but did not score.
Becker started, pitching five innings with five walks, five hits and four strikeouts.
“Cole pitched a good game,” Scharff said, “but we didn’t field very well behind him.”
Smith came on in relief, allowing three walks and two hits with two strikeouts.
Several Wildcats contributed on offense.
Hall went 2-for-4 with two singles and a run. Becker had two singles, two runs and an RBI. Smith had a double, walk, two runs and an RBI. Bowman went 2-for-3 with  a run and RBI. Boyd had a single, as did Levi Ramsey.