WNC Baseball: Young battles No. 13 Cochise in opening game of Henderson double header
Submitted by editor on Fri, 02/05/2016 - 7:13pm
It was only his second outing, but Western Nevada College sophomore Matt Young looked like a pitcher in midseason form Friday.
Young fired six scoreless innings and struck out 10 as Western Nevada College of Carson City defeated Cochise, 5-2, in the opening game of a nonconference baseball doubleheader in Henderson.
"It was textbook pitching today by Matt and (catcher) Tim," said WNC coach D.J. Whittemore. "The big difference for him was commanding the strike zone with the fastball. That puts him in counts where he can dictate."
In game two, Tim Lichty continued to make his presence felt in his second day back in a Wildcat uniform, cracking a two-run triple as WNC completed the doubleheader sweep, 6-3.
Young, a sophomore from Reno, gave WNC's bullpen a rest for most of the opener. He allowed just three hits in working his way through the six innings in just 73 pitches.
"My fastball had good velocity and movement, and I located it well, so I kept all of their hitters guessing," Young said.
The lefty, however, did give his team a scare in the sixth inning when a comebacker by Richard Zapata ricocheted off his pitching arm. Young remained in the game and struck out Adam Delacruz to end the inning.
Afterward, Young said he felt fine.
"It hit off my throwing arm, but it didn't affect my pitching," Young said.
Casey Cornwell relieved Young to start the seventh. Thee Apaches broke up the shutout by tallying two runs, scoring on sacrifice fly and Max Draijer's RBI single. DJ Peters caught a liner in center to end the game.
"Matt was getting close to his pitch count and we had a comfortable lead at the time," explained Whittemore in not sending Young out for the final inning. "He definitely wanted to keep pitching."
Young's counterpart on the mound, Alex Tovalin, blanked the Wildcats through the first four innings. However, in the fifth, a walk to Daniel Nist and a throwing error on Cornwell's groundball set up the Wildcats for a serious scoring opportunity. After Chandler Barkdull was hit by a pitch to load the bases, David Modler drew a walk to force in the go-ahead run. A wild pitch by Tovalin scored Cornwell for a 2-0 WNC lead.
The Wildcats went ahead 4-0 on Chad Bell's double along the left-field line. Lichty delivered a RBI double to score Bell for a 5-0 Wildcat lead. Lichty, who missed the first four games with an illness, had two of the Wildcats' four hits.
In the second game, WNC had one hit through two innings but produced six runs on the scoreboard.
WNC scored three times in the first. Abe Yagi's free pass with the bases loaded brought home Justin Mannens. Delacruz, Cochise's shortstop, overthrew first base, allowing Blake Morin and Peters to touch home plate.
"No one knows better than we do that if you don't throw strikes, you can't win baseball games," Whittemore said. "Luckily, this time we were on the other end of that."
Leading 3-0 in the second, Sam Salyers stole third base and came home on a safety squeeze bunt by Morin. Later in the inning, Lichty delivered his two-run triple - his third hit of the day and the first one by either team.
Cochise trimmed its 6-0 deficit in half in the third inning. Four walks by starter Josh Mill and a two-run error by Riley Ingram did the damage, but Mill stranded two baserunners by fanning Zapata.
With his one-hitter over five innings, Mill notched the win. He struck out four and walked six.
"Josh made a nice adjustment with a new grip," Whittemore said. "Good for him for putting in the work in the middle of the week and getting the results (today)."
Wildcat reliever Kyle Thompson kept the score 6-3 by getting a groundout to leave runners on first and second bases in the sixth inning.
Thompson struck out the first batter in the seventh, but Dominic Demarco stroked a single for only the Apaches' second hit and went to second on a passed ball. Thompson struck out Delacruz, but Cochise loaded the bases with a single and a walk. With Jorge Duarte at the plate as the potential go-ahead run, Thompson fanned him on four pitches.
Riley Ingram had the only other hit for the Wildcats off Jordon West and Jaime Yanchisin.
The Wildcats and Apaches conclude their four-game series with an 11 a.m. matchup Saturday.
