The Wildcats won their fourth straight game on Monday at Eastern Missouri Conference foe Van-Far 8-1 after scoring six runs in the fifth inning and recording nine strikeouts on the mound.
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It has all been going to plan for Wright City baseball lately.
The Wildcats won their fourth straight game on Monday at Eastern Missouri Conference foe Van-Far 8-1 after scoring six runs in the fifth inning and recording nine strikeouts on the mound.
Head coach Cody Bair said Wright City (5-7, 3-1 EMO) wants to see certain aspects from its team every game and saw them come into play against the Indians (6-8, 2-4 EMO.
“Our pitchers have been doing a great job of throwing strikes, our defense has been coming to play and making the plays behind them, and we’ve been putting the ball in play,” Bair said. “If you get those three going at the same time, you make a little run.”
Wright City did start the season with a 0-5 record but faced teams with a current combined record of 54-26, including three Class 5 schools and two state-ranked schools.
After Van-Far needed to make a pitching change mid-batter with one out in the fifth inning, Wright City put two runners on, capitalized off an infield error and kept applying the pressure. Jake Orf, Drew Elsenrath and Zach Rodriguez each had RBI hits in the six-run frame.
Every one of those hits weren’t balls in the gap and didn’t need to be as they were just out of the reach of the Van-Far infielders. Reece Culwell only allowed one run to Wright City, but the Wildcats found success against the bullpen.
“Their pitcher did a phenomenal job of pitching backwards and really attacking the zone to keep us off-balance,” Bair said. “I kept telling the guys to put the ball in play – hit it hard and they’ll find holes. Luckily, it started finding holes and worked in our favor.”
The returning first-team all-conference infielder Orf guided a leadoff double just down the line in the fourth inning before scoring on an Elsenrath RBI single up the middle, tying the game at 1. In the sixth inning, Orf and Elsenrath each had hits that split the Van-Far infielders to each finish with two RBI.
“Orf is a phenomenal hitter for us,” Bair said. “He always puts together great at-bats, but what you love most about him is, on that double, he hit down the line and didn’t take (the play) off as he was thinking two and put the pressure on the defense to get there safely.
“Elsenrath works hard every single day. He puts together great at-bats for us and was able to come through tonight.”
Bair said Wright City had to worry about saving pitching for Thursday too, like Van-Far, so that’s why Jack Goughenour didn’t make it to 60 pitches but struck out five in 3 2/3 innings. He allowed Van-Far’s only two hits and run as Micah Boeckman followed him with four strikeouts in three no-hit innings.
The third part of that formula Wright City stepped up as well since the defense only made one error all night during the times Van-Far was actually able to put the ball in the play.
“They did a wonderful job of getting out in front so first-pitch strikes are huge,” Bair said. “Continuing to put the ball in the zone and attack the zone where we want it and they hopefully make weak contact and out guys will make the plays behind them.”
Wright City hosts Hallsville (4-9) at 5 p.m. Thursday.
