The Yates Center baseball and softball teams got off to a rocky start to the 2019 season after they both got swept at home by Jayhawk-Linn on Thursday.
The baseball team fell 7-6 and 19-9 while the softball girls lost 8-4 and 11-6.
The losses move both teams to 0-2 to start off the season.
The Wildcat baseball team attempted a seventh-inning rally in game one after trailing 7-1.
Yates Center drove in five runs in the bottom of the seventh to get within a run but the Wildcats were unable to get that tying or go-ahead run to get the win.
Caden Graham got the start and allowed just two runs on a hit and three walks with three strikeouts in his four innings. Tyton Smoot relieved Graham in the fifth and thats when the Wildcat defense started to fall apart.
Smoot allowed four hits which scored five runs, three of which were unearned. Asher Sievers came in in the sixth and managed to calm things down, allowing just three hits and striking out three but the damage had been done.
Nolan Jones, Jaymond Rice and Joey Smith each recorded two hits in the game.
Things were not as close in game two.
After leading by four heading into the top of the fourth, Jayhawk-Linn put up seven run-innings in the fourth and fifth to take a 14-7 lead heading into the sixth inning. The Jayhawks scored five more runs in the sixth to push their lead to double-digits and the Wildcats only managed a run in the bottom of the inning which ended the game in a six-inning run-rule.
Freshman Kendrick Jones got the start and held up well through the first 3.1 innings allowing just two runs on five hits and a walk with eight strikeouts but the next five relievers were peppered by the Jayhawks, giving up 17 of the 19 runs.
Sievers led the Wildcats offensively with three hits and four RBIs followed by two each for Graham, Smoot, Connor Griffith and Carter Burton.
On the field next door, the Lady Cat softball team wasnt having much better luck.
In game one, a five-run second inning put Yates Center in chase mode for the final five innings and two four-run innings in the fourth and fifth in game two sunk the Lady Cats hopes of redemption.
Junior Madelynn Collins and Taylor Jacobs each took losses at the pitching mound.
Collins allowed eight runs (four earned) on eight hits and three walks while striking out four and Jacobs allowed 11 runs (six earned) on nine hits and four walks. She struck out five.
Freshman Morgan Collins had a four-hit game in game one followed by her sister Madelynn who had a three-hit game. Julia Day had two hits.
