SOUTH WHITLEY – The Whitko baseball team rallied Saturday to earn a split in home doubleheader action versus Marion.
A solo blast off the bat of Tanner Gaff in the sixth inning lifted the Wildcats to a 10-9 win in the nightcap of the season-opening twin bill.
The hosts scored seven runs in the fifth inning of game two to rally for the split.
Ryan Weigold collected the pitching win in relief for Whitko and also had a two RBI in the win. Avery Robbins had two hits in the second game win and Ethan Nicodemus collected the save.
Marion scored seven runs in the fifth inning to take the opener 9-5. The Wildcats had six errors in the first contest.
Gaff had two hits and an RBI and Nicodemus had a double and two RBI for Whitko. Alex Stoddard had a double and an RBI and took the pitching loss despite striking out eight Marion batters in just four innings of work.
“With the exception of the fifth inning in game one, I thought we played pretty well,” said Whitko coach Erik Hisner. “If we would’ve limited our defensive mistakes in that fifth inning, and minimized the damage, we would’ve given ourselves a chance to win game one. However, I’m really proud of our kids in game two. Give them a lot of credit for staying the course and grinding out a win. A lesser team would’ve folded down 6-2 in the fifth inning, especially after a tough loss in game one.”
“With this being our first actual game outside, we saw a lot of improvement from game one to game two. And we had a lot of guys make contributions in our game two win.”
Tanner Gaff made a great hitting adjustment on his solo home run in the bottom of the sixth inning that proved to be the game winner. And give Ethan Nicodemus a lot of credit for coming back into the game in the seventh inning to earn the save.”
Whitko (1-1) plays a doubleheader at Argos next Saturday at 11 a.m.
