The Chuckey-Doak baseball team used small ball to manufacture enough offense and got a terrific performance from Lynkin Cutshaw on the mound to take down West Greene on the road 4-0 on Tuesday evening.
“We played better today, but we are still struggling at the plate. We have to preach playing clean defense, pounding the strike zone and finding a way to score a couple of runs,” Chuckey-Doak coach Jacob Willett said. “We were able to do that today. It was encouraging to that we could play clean baseball today after giving some runs away yesterday.”
On the hill Cutshaw twirled a masterful seven innings, striking out 13, walking four and allowing just one hit in the shutout effort. It was his second consecutive one-hitter.
“Lynkin has had back-to-back phenomenal starts. He’s been pounding the zone and he’s throwing it well. He’s 3-0 and having a pretty good start to the year,” Willett said.
For much of the day the Black Knights’ bats had a hard time figuring out West Greene ace Braden McCamey and went into the fourth inning tied at 0-0. Kiptyn Ball led off the side by bouncing a chopper over the third baseman for the team’s first hit of the day. Randall Sauceman then sent a bunt down the third baseline. It was too far away from the mound for McCamey to field it and third baseman Brandon Hunter covered his bag instead of trying to make the out at first.
It was another bunt by Shane Cook that scored Cutshaw and broke the tie. On the play Cook broke for second on the throw back to the mound. West Greene threw the ball away going from second to the plate which allowed Sauceman to score and Cook to go all the way to third.
Cooper Seay put down another bunt that scored Cook and gave Chuckey-Doak a 3-0 lead. McCamey struck out the final two batters of the frame.
“When we are struggling to hit we have to find a way,” Willett said. “These guys have been great about being selfless and sacrificing their at bats for the betterment of the team. They were willing to lay down a bunt to move a guy. They were aggressive on the base path. It’s about the little things.”
McCamey had a strong outing for the Buffaloes, and ultimately two bunt singles in the fourth led to him taking the loss. He went six innings with 11 strikeouts, two walks and four hits allowed.
In the fifth inning Dom Atchison pounded the Knights’ hardest hit of the evening. He launched a flay ball into deep center field for a double. After the ball was overrun in the grass he ended up on third base. On the next at bat Jake Hinkle laid down a sacrifice bunt to score Atchison and push the lead to 4-0.
West Greene struggled to get anything going on offense on Tuesday and only stepped on second base twice all evening. McCamey was 1-for-1 with two walks.
For Chuckey-Doak Sauceman reached base on a walk and a single, and Atchison had a double.
With the win Chuckey-Doak prevented West Greene from building an early lead in the District 1-2A Standings. Both teams are now 3-1 in league play after splitting the early-season series.
