With the baseball season that started on April 1st, the Woodhaven Warriors face off against Skyline, and we will see how the season will go on after the first game. The team has had some struggles throughout the offseason with not having a coach for a while and not being able to practice. Leading into the first game after spring break, the team has not been able to practice for very long and only had a week or two to practice for the opening day of the baseball season.
When the game started, Evan Holt started out pitching the first inning and had a decent inning after coming back from a major surgery. Holt went for one inning and gave up no hits and no runs, but he did give up two walks and struck out one person. Going into the bottom of the first, Lucas Farner started the game off with an infield hit to the shortstop. After that, he ended up scoring on a passed ball, making the score 1-0 Warriors.
In the next four innings, the two teams had a pitching duel, leading to neither team scoring a run until the bottom of the sixth inning when the Warriors scored two runs on some base-running trickery with Jace Davis stealing second base, which led to Dante Perry scoring from third. After that, Davis scored on a ground ball single to left field from Cam Thorning. This made the score 3-0 Warriors, and that was the final score of the game.
Within those four scoreless innings, Tristan Spencer pitched for the Warriors, and the freshman pitcher struck out two and then gave up a single up the middle. When asking Spencer about his first varsity appearance, he said, “It was great. I was nervous at first, but after the first out I was calm.” Shortly after that single, Spencer picked off the runner getting him into a rundown on the base paths leading to the top of the second inning being over. During the Warriors’ bats, nothing happened besides a walk by Spencer and three strikeouts after that.
Going into the top of the third inning, Spencer was still pitching and walked the first batter of the inning and gave up a single after that, but was able to get out of the inning without allowing any runs, and that ended his first varsity pitching appearance.
The Warriors had another quick inning during their at-bats and did not get any more hits or runs. Going into the top of the fourth inning, Kaden Newsted came into the relief, having a good first inning, getting two strikeouts and giving up no runs or hits. However, the bottom of the fourth went quickly by Thorning getting a walk but ended with two groundouts and a flyout that ended the inning.
Going into the fifth inning, the Warriors allowed two base runners but were able to get out of the jam without allowing a run. When the Warriors came up to bat, it was another quick inning with back-to-back strikeouts and a groundout that ended the fifth inning.
When heading into the top of the sixth inning, it started off with an infield single to Davis, but Newsted was able to get out of the inning without allowing anymore hits and no runs. When going into the bottom of the sixth inning the Warriors finally got a walk and two hits that later in that inning led to the Warriors scoring two runs.
Going into the last inning, the Skyline Eagles ended the game quickly with a groundout, a strikeout, and a fly out to end the first game of the season. The Warriors have a very long and eventful schedule ahead of them. With their league games starting on April 7th.
