MORAN — The Marmaton Valley High baseball team started strong behind the arm of senior pitcher Wyatt Ard in the first game for an 18-3 win.
The Wildcats (1-1) weren’t as fortunate in their second game and were shut down in a 15-0 loss.
Game one
Marmaton Valley went down early but never allowed it to faze them in a lopsided victory.
Ard allowed St. Paul’s Vincent Smith to reach on a single and Trey Peters to walk as both came around for scores on Zakary Kirkpatrick and Landen Beachner RBI groundouts. It gave the Indians an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first.
“Wyatt was around the zone and he was letting the defense work behind him,” Marmaton Valley head coach Adam Borth said. “We’ve got a pretty good defense typically. Dominic came in, cleaned it up and did the same thing.”
Marmaton Valley’s Tyler Lord and Brayden Lawson scored in the bottom of the first on an Ard two-run double to the left field wall. Ard then came around to score during the next at-bat when Daniel Fewins rocketed another RBI double to left field for the 3-2 advantage.
Dylan Drake doubled to right field and Lord walked before both were plated on a Lawson sacrifice fly to center and a Dominic Smith hit by pitch for the 5-2 lead.
“In the first game Dylan hit the ball well,” Borth said. “There were several guys that hit the ball pretty well. We’re a young team and our young guys hit the ball well too. Dylan was on every time, Daniel Fewins was on base every time and we put some pressure on them.”
St. Paul’s Kiser Wiatrak doubled to left field and was walked home by Ard in the third inning to bring the game within two runs, 5-3.
The Wildcat bats then woke up again in the bottom of the third when Drake roped an RBI single to right field and Chase Smith shot a two-run single to left for an 8-3 lead. Smith and Lord then scored on throwing errors in the bottom of the third for a 10-3 edge.
Ard delivered at the plate in the bottom of the third inning when he laced a two-run double into right center field for a 12-3 lead. Drake then sent a two-run double to right for a big 15-3 lead heading to the fourth.
Smith retired St. Paul’s batters in four at-bats in the fourth inning to just about wrap the game up. Smith, Fewins and Morrison came around to score in the bottom of the fourth and give Marmaton Valley an 18-3 victory in four innings.
Ard tossed three innings, allowing three runs and two hits while striking out four. The Wildcats collected 10 hits and Drake had a team-high four hits.
Game two
