After a back-and-forth first four innings Saturday, the Wright City Wildcats scored 12 runs in the fifth and sixth innings to defeat Warrenton.

Wright City (2-6) swept both games of Saturday’s doubleheader. They defeated Hannibal 9-3 and Warrenton 16-3. Warrenton (3-4) defeated Hannibal 10-8 to split the Saturday doubleheader at Wright City High School.

Warrenton and Wright City are scheduled to square off again April 9.

Despite starting the season with five losses at the Troy tournament, Wright City baseball coach Ryan Raterman believes the competition prepared the Wildcats for the two games Saturday.

“I think the Troy Tournament prepared us for today by playing the tough competition,” Raterman said. “That’s why we’re in it. We were ready for a dogfight and a doubleheader with these kind of conditions again. It’s not typical baseball weather. We saw great pitching. We were ready for everybody’s best today. And I think the boys were hungry to put some wins in the win column.”

Warrenton baseball coach Eric Burle thought the Warriors’ effort in Saturday’s game against Hannibal was good. He cited the importance of the win over Hannibal, who is in the same district as Warrenton. Sam Wortham started the game against Hannibal. Burle said Wortham threw strikes at a high clip. They also had timely hits in the game, Burle said.

“I thought the first game obviously was good,” Burle said. “It was a big win because they’re a district opponent. So the fact that we were able to beat a district opponent will hopefully help us out in the long run when it comes to the district seed meeting and stuff like that.”

The Wildcats and Warriors traded runs in the early innings of Saturday’s game between the two teams. Wright City senior Logan Kellner scored a run to start the scoring. Kellner doubled with one out in the first inning. He advanced to third base on a balk. After Kyle Johnson was hit with a pitch, Kellner scored on a wild pitch by Warrenton pitcher Ben Peth. After Peth walked a pair of Wildcat hitters to load the bases, Peth got Nick Moore to ground into a double play to end the Wright City half of the first inning.

Warrenton responded with a first-inning run to tie the game. Kellner walked Troy Anderson and Kannon Hibbs to lead off the inning. Anderson scored later in the inning on Caleb Clark’s sacrifice fly.

Wright City temporarily regained the lead in the second inning. Hayden Kendall scored on Logan McCartney’s sacrifice fly to give the Wildcats a brief 2-1 lead. Kendall and Duan McRoberts were hit by pitches to start the inning. Peth hit three batters in the inning.

Warrenton scored two runs in the second inning to claim a 3-2 lead. Austin Haas and Anderson were both hit with a pitch with one out. They both scored on Hibbs’ two-run double with one out in the inning.

Wright City tied the game in the third inning. Johnson scored on Bryce Williams’ single to tie the game at three.

After Warrenton was held scoreless in the third inning, Wright City scored one run in the fourth inning to claim a lead they would not relinquish. McRoberts scored on a pitch in the dirt with one out in the inning.

Wright City junior Jake Mitts entered the game to pitch for the Wildcats in the fourth inning. Mitts allowed a lone single and struck out two Warrenton batters in a scoreless fourth inning.

Raterman thought Mitts’ scoreless fourth inning was big for the Wildcats. Wright City led 4-3 when Mitts entered the game.

Coming in and throwing a scoreless (inning) after we just scratched across a run was huge for us,” Raterman said. “They scored, we scored. They scored, we scored. And to be able to put up a zero, and then we were able to execute our offense. The rest was history.”

Wright City broke the game open with an eight-run fifth inning. Warrenton pitcher Bailey Meyer walked three Wright City batters to load the bases with one out. Meyer hit Logan McCartney with a pitch. Williams scored to extend the Wright City lead to 5-3. Kellner later hit a two-run single to extend the lead to 7-3. The Wildcats scored five more runs in the fifth inning. They added four runs in the sixth inning to earn the 16-3 win.

“We knew that today, even though the wind was blowing out, it didn’t favor a right-handed hitter to the pull side,” Raterman said. “So we really had to make an adjustment and sit middle away. And then we started peppering the right side of the field. And then we saw a lot of pitches. We put a quarter in the merry-go-round and added baserunners. And did our thing by bunting and running and things of that nature.”

Burle said it was a tough pitching day for the Warriors in the game against Wright City.

“This game against Wright City, it’s tough because that’s kind of like their World Series type game. They’re a smaller school so you always know you’re going to get their best shot,” Burle said. “Just kind of a tough pitching day for our guys. There’s some things we’ve got to clean up. And we know that.”

Both teams combined to hit 13 batters in the game. There were 10 batters hit by a pitch in the first four innings. Burle noted the windy conditions and the long day. He also stressed it was a rivalry game.

“We’ve got to do a better job throwing strikes,” Burle said. “And we didn’t do a lot of that in the second game. We got ahead of a lot of batters with two strikes and then either losing them with a ball four or hitting guys with two strikes. They’re a good team. Can’t take anything away from them because they do a pretty good job.”

Burle believes the Warrior pitchers throwing more strikes and the Warrior hitters getting more hits with runners on base are the main keys for Warrenton as they continue regular season play. The Warriors defeated O’Fallon Christian in the first game of the season. They lost games to Fort Zumwalt East, St. Dominic and Windsor.

“I think we’ve got to be a little better with runners on base,” Burle said. “And even today, we struggled a little bit at times with runners on base. And that kind of hurt us in a few games already. Particularly the St. Dominic game that we had a chance to win.”

Wright City lost games at the Troy Tournament to CBC, Francis Howell Central, Fort Zumwalt North, Battle and Washington High School. Raterman believes the two wins were big for the team as they started conference games earlier this week.

“Those two wins are huge,” Raterman said. “We start conference on Monday vs. Elsberry…I think the boys needed that to have a little swagger heading into Monday.”

Wright City lost to Elsberry 10-7.

They are slated to host New Haven Tuesday. First pitch is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.

Warrenton defeated St. Charles West 15-4 Tuesday. They are scheduled to host North Point High School Thursday. First pitch is scheduled for 4:15 p.m. They are also scheduled to host Montgomery County Monday. First pitch is slated for 4:30 p.m.