The West Prairie/Southeastern baseball team took to the road last week and split a pair of contests by defeating West Hancock 9-4 before dropping a 6-2 decision to Lewistown/ Valley/Cuba.
In a week that saw several games postponed due to inclement weather, the Cyclones hosted West Hancock Thursday and capitalized on four Titans’ errors to take an early lead and never looked back to get the non-conference win.
WP/SE took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second before adding three more in the third against West Hancock starter Dylan Carter who walked seven in just 2.2 innings.
The Titans answered in the top of the fourth by pushing across three runs against Cyclones’ junior starter Braden Coplan to get within 5-3. But WP/SE scored two runs in the bottom of the inning against Titan reliever Easton Swallow to extend the lead to 7-3.
The Titans made it 7-4 with a single run in the fifth against Cyclones’ junior reliever Case Marlow before WP/SE put the game away with a pair of runs in the sixth.
“I would say that was the best game we’ve played to start this season,” said WP/SE head coach Grant Bland. “Defense turned a huge momentum shifting double play in the fifth.”
Coplan allowed only three earned runs on just two hits while striking out five in 3.1 innings before Marlow went the rest of the way and allowed only one run on one hit.
Junior Eli DeCounter went 3-for-3 and drove in three runs to pace the Cyclones’ offensive attack. Coplan and Marlow each helped their own cause by going 2-for-4 with Coplan scoring three times.
Carter took the loss for West Hancock who fell to 6-5 overall.
“Coplan and Marlow did a really good job of controlling West Hancock’s bats and our offense had the timely hitting we needed,” said Bland. “And, Eli DeCounter had a huge day at the plate for us.”
WP/SE traveled to Lewistown Saturday and the Miners made an early lead hold up as LVC downed the Cyclones in a Prairieland Conference contest that saw WP/SE commit three errors.
Freshman starter Tyson Carnes went five innings for WP/ SE and allowed two runs in each of the first and second innings as the Cyclones fell behind 4-0.
LVC added a single run in the third before WP/SE scored a single run in the fifth against LVC starter Kolby Cleer to make it 5-1.
The Miners made it 6-1 with a run in the sixth before the Cyclones tallied once in the seventh. But it wasn’t enough to keep from falling to 3-3-1 for the season and 1-1 in the conference.
Cleer went the distance to earn the victory for LVC (8-3, 3-0) after allowing just one earned run on two hits and striking out 11.
Carnes took the loss for WP/SE giving up six runs, two earned, on seven hits in five innings of work. Freshman Hudson Riebling came on in relief and allowed just one hit with a strikeout in an inning of work.
“Missed opportunities and two early errors got us,” said Bland. “Carnes threw well enough to win the game for us.”
The Cyclones were scheduled to return to Prairieland play Monday, heading to Macomb to face the Bombers (9-2, 0-0 Prairieland).
