The Chuckey-Doak baseball team found early success on offense, but let one bad inning cost them in a 10-6 loss to West Ridge in Lower Afton on Friday night.
Chuckey-Doak jumped ahead 3-0 in the first and was in control for five innings before a four-run sixth inning doomed it. The Black Knights had two outs and needed one to get out of the inning. The next thing you knew West Ridge strung together a double, double, single, walk, and two hit batters to score four runs with two outs. Chuckey-Doak never recovered and only mustered one hit in the final two innings.
Randall Sauceman led Chuckey-Doak with a 3-for-4 day at the plate. Cooper Seay went 2-for-3 with one run and one RBI. The Knights collected 10 hits.
West Ridge collected 14 total hits. Dale Martin and Isaac McGee collected three hits each. Martin went 3-for-5 with 2 RBIs and 1 run. McGee was 3-for-4 with 1 RBI and 1 run. Tyson Jones was 2-for-3 with 3 RBIs. Jaxson Bolling went 2-for-4 with 1 RBI and 2 runs. Braelyn Vance was 2-for-4 with a run and a walk.
Ty Malak pitched all seven innings on the mound for West Ridge and gave up 10 hits, 6 runs, 1 walks, and collected 3 strikeouts.
Sophomore Kiptyn Ball started for Chuckey-Doak before he was relieved by Gavin Crum and Kaden Bowers. All three combined gave up 14 hits, 9 earned runs, 3 walks, and combined for 7 strikeouts. The trio unfortunately hit five batters also.
“I think our pitching was really good and kept us in the game. Every guy that threw tonight was really competitive. Our misses were close misses for the most part. Just one of those games where we gave them a couple free outs and they scored more runs than we did,” Black Knights Head Coach Jacob Willett stated.
Chuckey-Doak started red hot with 3 runs on 4 hits in the bottom of the first. Four-straight singles from Kiptyn Ball, Randall Sauceman, Gavin Crum, and Cooper Seay began the run. Ball singled with one out. Sauceman singled next and Ball advanced to third when West Ridge left third base unoccupied on the play. Crum laid down and bunt and scored Ball. Courtesy runner Braxton Lowe scored next on a pickoff error at third. Seay and Lowe pulled off a double steal and Lowe scored on the perfectly executed play.
The Wolves quickly responded back in the top of the second with three runs to tie it. Jaxson Bolling was hit by a pitch to lead off and Braelyn Vance doubled. Hunter Hicks was hit by a pitch and loaded the bases with one out. Tyson Jones laced a 2-RBI double into left field and scored Bolling and Vance. Isaac McGee scored Hicks and tied it on an RBI-single.
Chuckey-Doak took the lead back with Shane Cook’s RBI-single in the bottom of the second to score Ben Palazzo from third. They led 4-3 after the second. The lead grew to 5-3 with another double steal. Lynkin Cutshaw took off for second base and Cooper Seay took off towards home plate when the throw was made. Seay helped make it 5-3 after three innings.
“The offense was incredible for the first few innings. Everybody that went up to plate did their job,” Willett explained.
The Wolves responded with another three spot in the top of the fourth to take the lead. Tyson Jones and Isaac McGee both singled. Reagan Moore singled and Jones was caught between the base paths and tagged out in a rundown. Ty Malak helped himself on the mound with a 2-RBI single to tie it 5-5, scoring McGee and Moore. The Wolves broke the tie and took a 6-5 lead with Dale Martin’s RBI-single.
It took until the bottom of the fifth for Chuckey-Doak to tie it 6-6. Randall Sauceman collected another hit to lead off the inning. He was replaced with courtesy runner Braxton Lowe. Lowe stole second and advanced to third on a grounder. Cooper Seay’s sac fly into center field scored Lowe and tied it.
“That’s the best baseball we’ve played for five innings now put together. But we’ve got to do it for seven. If we can put that together for seven we’re gonna be tough to beat,” Coach Willett expressed.
The top of the sixth changed the whole game. West Ridge broke the game open and scored four runs with two outs. Dale Martin’s RBI-double scored Reagan Moore and Jaxson Bolling’s RBI-double scored Martin. Braelyn Vance singled and Dalton Clark walked to load the bases. Hunter Hicks and Tyson Jones were hit by pitches on back-to-back pitches and the lead soon ballooned to 10-6.
The Wolves retired five-consecutive Black Knights and shut the door on any opportunity for them to come back. The Black Knights went 3-for-21 after starting out red hot 7-for-10. Chuckey-Doak suffered a 10-6 loss at the conclusion of Friday’s contest.
“A lot of good early on. I can’t complain a whole lot with how we played in the first four innings. We really see the potential with what we’ve got. If we can put that together for seven innings we’re a pretty good team,” Coach Willett said.
Chuckey-Doak gets back in conference action next week with Happy Valley on Monday and Tuesday. The Knights travel to Elizabethton to play the Warriors on Monday and host them on Tuesday.
“We’ve got to keep winning our conference games. Right now we’re 3-0 in conference play, so we’ve got to just take it one game at a time. Got to get it to 4-0 on Monday and take it from there. Whatever it takes to win, man,” Willett ended with.
