An extended break for the Yuma High School baseball team will come to an end Saturday.
The Outlaws will attempt to keep pace in Class 2A when they travel to Holyoke for two games. It will be their first since splitting a double dip with Wiggins at the Outlaws Lair last Thursday, which had been moved up two days from last Saturday in anticipation of poor weather conditions.
Yuma entered this week 9-4 and No. 4 in the 2A Selection & Seeding Index. After Saturday, the Outlaws’ next game is next Thursday in Limon.
“We are still in good shape,” skipper Brady Nighswonger said. “Just need to continue to get better every day and find ways to keep winning. Sometimes a little bit of a break is a refresher and helps everyone reset. I sure hope that is the case for us, I guess we will find out when we start playing again.”
Holyoke is not your older brother’s, or cousin’s or uncle’s, Dragons. A regular contender for years in the Lower Platte, the Dragons are 0-15 this season with all of their losses coming by at least 10 runs.
If the Outlaws take care of business as they should, they will remain in a solid position to host a regional next month, but their RPI will take a bit of a hit.
While it was warmer last Thursday than it turned out to be Saturday, the wind whipped up as the doubleheader progressed. It helped make every pop fly an adventure no matter where the ball went.
Yuma won the opener 12-11, rallying from two six-run deficits, but could not hold a one-run lead in the nightcap, losing 13-8.
Fifteen of Wiggins’ 25 runs in the twin-bill came with two outs. Yuma had its own two-out, five-run rally in the opener to pull out that win, and scored eight runs total with two outs.
“The wind played a hugh part in Thursday’s games, it made playing defense very tough for both sides,” Nighswonger said.
Both teams likely went home thinking they blew a chance at a sweep, but the way the afternoon went a split seemed like a reasonable conclusion.
Both scored one run in the first inning of the opener, Yuma’s coming on Reyli Trejo’s two-out double scoring Silas Baucke.
Wiggins then scored six runs with two outs in the top of the second, including a three-out triple. Yuma got one back in the home half when Christian Thomson singled and scored on Marvin Duarte’s single.
Wiggins pushed its lead back to six, 8-2 with one run in the third. Lennox Huwa led off the bottom half with a double, followed by Baucke’s home run to left, cutting the deficit to 8-4.
Both scored one in the fourth, Yuma’s coming after Huwa singled and Baucke drove him in with a double.
Trailing 9-5 in the bottom of the fifth, Yuma plated six runs, including six with two outs. Chris Wario’s single scored Alex Pensado. The Tigers intentionally walked Baucke with the bases loaded, scoring Wario. Jesus Rodriguez followed with a three-run double, scoring Baucke, Jose Mario Ross (courtesy running for pitcher Brody Kallweit). Trejo then doubled in Stevie Seward (courtesy running for Rodriguez), and Pensado’s double drove in Trejo for a 12-9 Yuma lead.
Wiggins got one run back in the sixth on an error, and got another in the seventh on another error. It appeared the Tigers had tied the score during the next at-bat, but the batter was called out for being out of the batter’s box when he got the hit. Kallweit struck out the next batter to preserve the 12-11 win.
Yuma had 15 hits, including seven doubles and one homer. Baucke had a homer and a double, four RBI and scored three runs, Trejo two doubles among his three hits, with two RBI and one run, Huwa two hits, including a double, with three runs, Pensado two hits, including a double, one RBI and one run, Wario two hits, including a double, with one RBI and one run, Rodriguez the three-run double, Thomson one hit and one run, Kallweit one double, and Duarte one hit and one RBI.
Yuma’s rally got Trejo off the hook and resulted in him being the winning pitcher. He allowed nine runs, seven earned, in four innings, striking out four, walking three and allowing seven hits. Kallweit went the final three innings, allowing two unearned runs on three hits, striking out four and walking one.
The Outlaws got the win despite committing eight errors, while Wiggins had just one.
The gusting wind really picked up during the nightcap, helping lead to the teams combining for eight errors, five by Wiggins and three by Yuma.
Both teams again scored in the first, Yuma’s coming on an error on a flyball to center that scored Huwa.
The Outlaws took a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the second, both runs coming with two outs. Seward scored on a wild pitch on strike three to Duarte, who reached first. Duarte then scored on Baucke’s single.
Wiggins tied it at 3-3 in the top of the third. The Tigers then scored three runs in the top of the fifth, again all with two outs, for a 6-3 lead. Yuma cut it to 6-5 in the home half. Baucke scored on a wild pitch and Ross scored on an error on a grounder. Yuma left the bases loaded, though, with two straight strikeouts.
However, Rodriguez’s two-out two-run homer to left field in the bottom of the sixth gave the Outlaws a 7-6 lead.
They could not hold the lead, though. Wiggins scored two for an 8-7 lead, then scored five more with two outs, including another three-run triple.
Yuma got one run back in its last at-bat on a wild pitch, but could not mount a rally as Wiggins got out of town with the 13-8 win and a split.
“A sweep would have been really nice, we still need to figure out how to lock in and win the back half of doubleheaders, three of our four losses have come in game number two,” Nighswonger said. “However I really like our guys and our team and am ready to get back out there and see what the rest of the season holds.”
The Outlaws were outhit 13-5. Wiggins had four doubles and two triples, while Yuma had two doubles and one homer.
Baucke had two hits, including a double, with one RBI and two runs, Rodriguez the two-run dinger, Pensado a double and one run, Trejo one hit, Huwa one run, Duarte one run and one RBI, and Thomson one RBI.
Rodriguez went the first five innings on the hill, allowing six runs, five earned, on eight hits, striking out five and walking one. Eric Wario went one inning, striking out two, walking five, and one hit for two earned runs. Ross went one inning, striking out two, walking one, allowing four hits and five unearned runs.