MOUND CITY — Marmaton Valley has been struggling late in the season, skidding to a 1-9 record in Three Rivers League play.
Unfortunately, things did not improve for the Wildcats on Monday when faced Jayhawk-Linn in Mound City.
The Jayhawks defeated the Wildcats 16-1 and 17-2.
Freshman Lane Bahnsen pitched the opener, allowing 13 earned runs on 10 hits with three walks. Marmaton Valley coach Derek Scharff said he was happy with the effort his young pitcher put forth in his three-plus innings of work.
“Lane did what he was asked to do, which is throw strikes,” Scharff said. “We had a couple of fielding errors, but overall, Jayhawk-Linn just hit the ball well and into gaps.”
The Marmaton Valley offensive struggled, mustering only one hit — a single from sophomore Caiden Elliot.
“We could never get anything going,” Scharff said. “We have to do a better job putting the ball in play and making the other team play defense. We had a lot of guys striking out. We looked like we hadn’t played in a while.”
Game two didn’t see any improvement and the Wildcats lost 17-2.
Junior Justice Pugh started on the mound for the Wildcats and allowed three runs in the first inning.
“The first inning wasn’t bad,” Scharff said. “We gave up three runs, but made them earn all three. They hit the ball well.”
The second inning didn’t go as smoothly though and the Jayhawks scored 13 runs.
“Justice struggled throwing strikes and walked the bases loaded,” Scharff said. “Even with that, the next several hitters popped up and we dropped every single pop fly. We had six errors on pop flies that led to several runs in the second inning.”
Scharff pulled Pugh to keep his pitch count down so he can pitch in the regular-season finale on Wednesday against Oswego.
Jayhawk-Linn scored one in the third to end the game.
Brock Hall and Bahnsen each had two hits to lead the Wildcats.
SOFTBALL
The Marmaton Valley softball team had similar struggles on Monday in Mound City.
Jayhawk-Linn swept the Wildcats 19-9 and 17-2.
In the first game, seven errors doomed any chance the Wildcats had to pull the upset.
Sophomore Karlie Stephens pitched a complete game and allowed 12 earned runs on 13 hits with six walks and two strikeouts.
Kirsten Adams led the Wildcats offense by going 3-for-3 with two RBI and one run scored. Izzabelle Bigelow and Trinitee Guiterrez each added two hits.
In game two, the offense dried up and a single by Clara Boyd was the team’s only hit in a 17-2 loss.
Shaylee Woods got the start in the pitcher’s circle for the Wildcats and was helped by better defense with the Wildcats only committing one error, but Woods struggled against the Jayhawk lineup.
Woods pitched two-plus innings and allowed 16 earned runs on 18 hits with two walks and no strikeouts.
Jayhawk-Linn scored nine in the first, three in the second and five in the third to win it.
