After a wild finish on Monday evening, the Chuckey-Doak baseball team made Tuesday night’s game less stressful by jumping ahead early and never looking back in an 11-1 win to defeat West Greene.
“It was a lot less stressful than yesterday. Yesterday was a good game. And I get being on the other side of that and being let down from the day before. You feel like you’re in that game and you’ve got a chance and we ended up squeaking a win by. Then you kind of feel let down and let it hang over into today and we kind of took advantage of that. We had our best guy on the mound today. And we’re pretty good when he’s pitching,” Chuckey-Doak Head Coach Jacob Willett said.
Monday’s game was a classic. Tuesday’s game was calmer. The Black Knights scored 3 in the first inning and kept adding onto their lead before ending the game early in the sixth inning with a 6-run advantage. Chuckey-Doak’s senior-heavy team showed that experience comes in handy in most games. 7 of their 12 hits, 7 of their 8 RBIs, and 5 of their 11 runs came from the senior class.
With Lynkin Cutshaw on the mound, the Black Knights are tough to beat. The senior pitcher hurled 6 complete innings and allowed only 4 hits, 0 earned runs, and struck out 8. Coach Willett spoke about the importance of having Cutshaw on the mound throwing his best stuff.
“That kid’s pretty special, man. One unearned run, so he really gave up no runs.” Willett continued, “He’s really good. I can’t complain with how he throws the baseball. He’s pretty special.”
Another pair of Chuckey-Doak seniors helped carry Chuckey-Doak across the finish line. Ben Palazzo went a perfect 3-for-3 with 3 RBIs, 2 runs, and a walk. Randall Sauceman went 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs and 2 runs. Both seniors combined for 5 of their 8 RBIs and 6 of 12 hits.
The Black Knights evened their overall record to 7-7, but more importantly, improved to 7-0 against District 1-2A opponents. The Buffaloes lost their 5th-straight and slipped to 6-9 overall and 2-5 in District 1-2A.
Chuckey-Doak wasted no time before striking first and striking fast. Kiptyn Ball singled and Cooper Seay reached on a fielder’s choice. Ben Palazzo doubled to right center and scored Ball to lead 1-0. Gavin Crum followed with a ground-rule double and helped score a pair of runs. The Knights created a 3-0 advantage in the opening inning.
“It’s always nice to get out to a lead early. Especially when you’re the away team. You come in and set the tone early and we did that,” Coach Willett stated.
Braxton Lowe scored the next run all by himself. Lowe singled and advanced to second on an error to lead off the second. He advanced to third on a ground out and scored on a passed ball five pitches later.
West Greene scratched one run across in the bottom of the second. Carter Stills hit a sharp grounder and reached on an error. Brandon Hunter doubled next to advance Stills to third. Bronson Brown laid down a bunt and Stills dashed home safely. West Greene trailed 4-1 after two.
Each team held their opponents in check in the third and fourth innings. The Black Knights extended their lead with two in the fifth. Kiptyn Ball led off with a double and reached home safely on Randall Sauceman’s RBI-single after him. Sauceman scored later in the inning on a balk.
Chuckey-Doak led 6-1 after five innings.
The Black Knights put it away with a five-spot in the sixth. Shane Cook and Kiptyn Ball led off with back-to-back walks. Randall Sauceman reached safely with an RBI-single, scoring Cook. Cooper Seay loaded the bases and reached safely by a Buffalo error. Ben Palazzo stepped into the batter’s box and delivered a 2-RBI single to score Ball and Sauceman. Gavin Crum reached on another West Greene error and Palazzo scored next. Braxton Lowe delivered an RBI-single to score Crum and cap off the 5-run inning.
“We started finding holes. We hit a lot of balls at them early on and then later on in the game we really started finding holes with the balls we were putting into play. That was the biggest difference,” Coach Willett explained.
The Black Knights finished the game recording three-straight outs and defeated the Buffs, 11-1, in six innings.
Chuckey-Doak travels to face Apostolic Christian Academy next on Thursday at 5:30 PM. West Greene hosts Morristown East on Friday at a special start time of 1 PM on Good Friday.
