Wright City struggles in loss to Rockwood Summit

John Rohlf, Sports Editor
Posted 3/29/23

The absence of timely hitting and executing the fundamentals doomed Wright City in their home opening loss to Rockwood Summit last week. 

Wright City fell to the Falcons 7-0 in Wright …

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Wright City struggles in loss to Rockwood Summit

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The absence of timely hitting and executing the fundamentals doomed Wright City in their home opening loss to Rockwood Summit last week. 

Wright City fell to the Falcons 7-0 in Wright City’s home opener last Thursday. The Wildcats fell behind 3-0 before taking their first at-bats and were unable to come up with timely hits despite getting multiple runners to third base in the game. 

“If we play our game and they play theirs, they beat us 3-2,” Wright City baseball coach Ryan Raterman said. “And it looks totally different than a 7-0 ballgame. I just got on the boys there. That team isn’t better than us 7-0. And the only way you would know that is if you were at the game watching it.” 

Wright City ace Hayden Waters started the game for the Wildcats but left the game after surrendering a single and a walk to open the game.  Wright City senior Trey Brakensiek came on in relief and was able to get a pair of outs while only surrendering a sacrifice fly before Rockwood Summit’s Quin Schwer scored two more runs on a two-out single. Brakensiek pitched out of a bases loaded jam in the third inning and pitched into the fourth inning for the Wildcats. 

“He threw a bunch of strikes and gave us a chance,” Raterman said. “The defense just failed him today.”

Brakensiek pitched 3 2/3 innings for Wright City. Jake Mitts came on in relief and threw 2 1/3 innings for Wright City. Micah Boeckman threw a scoreless seventh inning for the Wildcats. 

Offensively, Raterman pointed to the Wildcats’ struggles to get bunts down and some baserunning blunders. He also pointed to a lack of timely hitting. The Wildcats were able to get a runner in scoring position in five of the first six innings but were unable to push a run across. Bryce Williams grounded out sharply to shortstop with a runner on third and two outs in the fourth inning. Duan McRoberts was a step away from legging out an infield single to score a run in the sixth inning. 

Wright City played all seven innings offensively without Waters, who is a mainstay in the middle of the Wright City lineup. Waters was slated to hit third for Wright City in last week’s game and was replaced by Micah Boeckman.  

“Hayden’s obviously a double threat and a home run threat,” Raterman said. “We kind of had to play small ball a little bit. Micah went 1-for-3 doing that. He did a good job... It was just good baseball all around. Just not good enough today.”

The Wildcats are no strangers to starting a season slow and finishing with a winning record. The Wildcats started last season 0-5 before finishing the season with a winning record and advancing to the district championship game. Raterman noted the Wildcats play tough competition early in the season, which he thinks prepares them for the conference slate. 

“Once we get that first win in conference, things just kind of start rolling for us,” Raterman said. “That first win just starts to domino effect. I wish it would have happened sooner. Hopefully we can get one on Tuesday and start to put things together. Winning cures all things. And we’re going to continue to put in the work to make sure we find that first ‘W’.”

Wright City’s conference game against Elsberry slated for Tuesday was postponed. They are scheduled to play at North Callaway Thursday. They are slated to play against Ft. Zumwalt East and Warrenton Saturday at Ft. Zumwalt East. 


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