The Chuckey-Doak baseball team found the offense it has been looking for on Monday evening and made quick work of Happy Valley on the way to a 13-1 win.
The win keeps the Black Knights perfect in District 1-2A play at 4-0.
“This is the most complete game we have played all year. Things are starting to click for us, and the last few games there have been real promising signs,” Chuckey-Doak coach Jacob Willett said. “We can be a pretty dang good team, but we haven’t played like it. Now the offense is rolling and we’re playing good defense. It’s starting to look like pretty good baseball, and we just need to keep this momentum rolling.”
Chuckey-Doak pounded 12 hits while taking advantage of four walks and three hit batters. Seven different Black Knights earned a hit in the win and four players earned multiple hits.
“Last week we saw a lot of quality at bats that maybe didn’t turn into hits. But I felt like things were trending in the right direction,” Willett said. “Today those hits started to fall, and we had a lot of guys produce. Its nice to not have to rely on one or two guys, and I feel like we can get production one through nine.”
The hits started quickly for the Black Knights and in the first inning leadoff hitter Shane Cook fired a double into the right-center gap.
Cook then scored from second when Randall Sauceman caught the defense by surprise with a bunt down the third-base line. Sauceman reached safely and then took off for second. Amid the confusion and a late throw Cook was able to cover the final 90 feet for the first run of the evening.
Sauceman was the Black Knights’ top bat on Monday, going 3-for-3 with four RBIs.
“He stays inside the baseball. He’ll get behind in the count and then flare one backside for a hit. That’s what he has done the last couple of years and he does it really well,” Willett said.
Sauceman went on to score on a groundball to the shortstop on which the throw pulled the first baseman off the bag.
Chuckey-Doak’s lead grew to 3-0 in the second inning. Lynkin Cutshaw led off the side by pinning a double into the right-field corner. He moved up on a passed ball and scored when Braxton Lowe put a sacrifice fly into right field.
The Knights blew the game open in the third inning by pushing seven runs across the plate. That started with Sauceman, Cooper Seay and Ben Palazzo being hit by consecutive pitches to load the bases.
The first two runs scored when Gavin Crum skipped a groundball through the left side of the infield. Collin Bishop added another run when he sent a hard-hit groundball up the middle.
Lowe hit into an infield error to move the lead to 7-0, and Kiptyn Ball sent a sacrifice fly into centerfield to make it 8-0.
Sauceman knocked in the final two runs of the side when he fired a line drive into centerfield for a 10-0 Chuckey-Doak lead.
Happy Valley’s lone run of the night crossed in the top of the fourth inning. Lane Parker reached on a single to centerfield and scored when Fermin Carrillo grounded out.
Chuckey-Doak’s offense did not slow down in the bottom of the fourth and added three more runs. Cutshaw got things going by placing a line drive into right field. Bishop followed with another single, and then Lowe walked to load the bases.
A bases-loaded walk scored the first run, and then Sauceman launched a two-run single into left field to give Chuckey-Doak a 13-1 lead.
Crum earned the win on mound for the Black Knights. In four innings he struck out seven, walked one and allowed three hits.
In addition to three hits from Sauceman, Cook was 2-for-2 with a double, two walks and two runs scored. Cutshaw was 2-for-3 with a double and three runs scored. Bishop was 2-for-3 with two runs scored. Lowe and Crum each had two RBIs.
