High School Baseball: Yates Center and Marmaton Valley
Yates Center earned the home sweep over Marmaton Valley rebounding after a sweep at the end of last week to West Elk.
The home Wildcats won 13-9 in game one and 8-4 in game two. Yates Center moved to 5-3 and 5-1 in league play and Marmaton Valley dropped to 4-6 overall.
Marmaton Valley took early leads in both games with the largest being a 2-0 lead secured in the bottom of the third inning.
Yates Center allowed Marmaton Valley the lead for an inning before scoring 10 runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 10-2 lead.
Marmaton Valley held tough though, scoring two runs in the top of the fifth and three in the top of the sixth to get the visitors within three.
Yates Center scored another three runs in the bottom of the sixth to push their lead back to six and despite two runs in the top of the seventh, Marmaton Valley couldnt get enough runs across to tie it up or take the lead and extend the game.
We did a great job pitching, Marmaton Valley head coach Derek Scharff said. But our defense let us down big time. We had three of the best innings defensively followed up by the worst inning defensively this year. The fourth inning was too much to overcome. Our defense must improve for us to be successful.
Starter Justice Pugh earned the loss, allowing 10 runs (three earned) on three hits and a walk with four strikeouts.
Caiden Elliot led the way for Marmaton Valley offensively with three hits and two RBIs. Pugh put up two hits and two RBIs and Smith recorded two hits and an RBI.
Individual stats for Yates Center were not available.
Marmaton Valley took an early 3-1 lead after the first two innings. Yates Center tied it all up at three with two runs in the bottom of the third and took the lead in the bottom of the fifth with a run.
The visiting Wildcats tied it up again in the top of the sixth but four Yates Center runs in the bottom of the sixth gave the home Wildcats an advantage that they wouldnt give up as neither team scored in the seventh.
Again we did a nice job pitching, Scharff said, Our guys are doing a much better job minimizing walks and making the other team hit the ball but offensively we had a couple guys doing most of the damage. We need to get better production throughout the line-up. The opportunities are there, we just need to take advantage.
Elliot earned the loss for Marmaton Valley giving up four runs (two earned) on six hits with three strikeouts.
Eliot was the lone Wildcat with multiple hits, ending his day going 2-3 with an RBI.
