WNC Baseball: Riverside one-hits Wildcats in Southern California
Submitted by editor on Sat, 02/14/2015 - 7:34pm
Freshman right-hander Tyler Tungate no-hit the Western Nevada College Wildcats through seven innings to propel Riverside City College to a 7-1 nonconference baseball victory Saturday in Riverside, Calif.
WNC freshman left-hander Matt Young, seeking his third victory of the season, lasted five innings, surrendering four hits and two earned runs.
Reliever Cody Kerns didn't give up a hit in 2/3 of an inning, but all three of his baserunners, including two by free passes, came around to score in the sixth inning as Riverside built a 5-0 lead.
Tungate walked three and struck out five and surrendered a run in the seventh inning before leaving an inning later. Relievers David Robles and Cory Peterson held the Wildcats of Carson City hitless over the final two frames as the Tigers improved to 9-0.
"They don't give up runs, so that is a good recipe for success," said WNC coach D.J. Whittemore. "If you look at all of their wins this season, they limit the number of hits, walks and runs they give up."
Robles relieved Tungate in the eighth inning, and although he retired the Wildcats on three strikeouts, he gave up WNC's first hit - a two-out single by Austin Andrews.
Riverside ended the scoreless tie in the fourth inning. Garrison Cole doubled and advanced to third base on a balk. Roosevelt Bates delivered the RBI with the Tigers' second double of the inning.
Riverside broke it open in the sixth, scoring four times with the benefit of only one hit. After Brody Weiss belted a ground-rule double to open the inning, Kerns replaced Young and immediately struggled with his control. A wild pitch sent Weiss to third base, and he scored on a sacrifice fly by David Schuknecht, putting the Tigers in front 2-0.
Next, Anthony Ayala and Cole reached base via a walk and hit by pitch, respectively. The Wildcats compounded Kerns' wildness with an infield error — their lone defensive miscue — allowing Ayala to score. Another walk, followed by Kerns' second wild pitch of the inning, plated Cole to make the score 4-0. D.J. Peters replaced Kerns and issued a walk and a hit batsman to bring home the Tigers' fourth run of the inning.
The Wildcats broke up Tungate's shutout bid in the seventh, scoring without producing a hit. Jake Bennett took a leadoff walk and went to second when Kody Reynolds was hit by a pitch. On Tim Lichty's groundoput to Tungate, Bennett advanced to third base and Reynolds went to second. A groundout by pinch-hitter Bradley Lewis allowed Bennett to cross the plate with WNC's only run. The run ended a stretch of 13 innings without WNC scoring.
"We're not doing as good of a job with two strikes as we need to," Whittemore said. Peters gave up two runs in the eighth to complete the scoring.
WNC (6-4) will try to end its three-game losing streak in Sunday's series finale at 1 p.m. The two teams have split 20 games over the past seven years.
"We're indebted to them for giving us the opportunity to come down here and play them," Whittemore said.
