West Prairie/Southeastern took to the road for back-to-back non-conference games earlier this week and went 1-1 after dropping a 2-0 five-inning contest against ROWVA/Williamsfield before edging past Galva 2-1 Wednesday to improve to 12-11-1 on the season.
Tuesday at Dozer Park in Peoria, the Cyclones were no-hit through five innings in their loss to the Cougars.
With the Illinois High School Class 1A Regional Tournaments set to get underway next week, the varsity game was shortened by mutual decision to allow junior varsity players to get playing time at the home of the Peoria Chiefs minor league baseball team.
The game ended up being a pitcher’s duel between R/W starter Drake DeJaynes and WP/SE freshman Tyson Carnes.
The game was scoreless until the bottom of the third when the Cougars finally broke through.
Zander Vest led off with a single and advanced to second on a base hit by Nick Little. DeJaynes helped his own cause by drilling an RBI-single to score Zest and give the Cougars a 1-0 lead.
Carnes then picked off DeJaynes trying to steal second and then struck out Brody Lytle for the second out. But a ground ball by Austin Owens was mishandled by third baseman Austin Nelson for an error that allowed Lytle to score to make it 2-0.
WP/SE could not mount any threat against DeJaynes, who walked four batters and struck out nine in the five-inning affair to earn the win.
Carnes took the loss despite allowing only two runs (one earned) on six hits in four innings. The freshman also struck out four and did not walk a batter.
“Young guys played well and Carnes was really good again,” said WP/SE head coach Grant Bland.
On Wednesday, the Cyclones traveled to Galva and came home with a 2-1 win against the Wildcats.
The hosts took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third off of WP/SE starter Braden Coplan when Jay Smith singled to lead off the inning and would advance to third on a base hit by MJ Louck.
Smith would score after Ty Dowell-Keup flew out to Mason Whitman in center. Louck tried to advance to third but was thrown out on the relay throw from Coplan to Nelson.
The Cyclones came right back in the top of the fourth against Galva reliever JP Sloan, who came on in relief of Louck who went three innings.
Mason Whitman singled and Hudson Riebling drew a one-out walk to put runners on first and second.
A wild pitch by Sloan advanced Whitman and Riebling and a misplay on the ball allowed Whitman to come in to tie the game at 1-1 and send Riebling to third.
A ground out to second by Kash Lantz drove home Riebling to give WP/SE a 2-1 lead.
Coplan held the Wildcats in check the rest of the way to earn the victory. The junior hurler went seven innings and gave up one run on four hits while striking out nine and walking only two.
The Cyclones were held to just five hits in the game as Matt Whitman went 2-for-4 and Lantz had the only RBI to lead WP/SE.
Sloan took the loss for Galva after allowing one run on just one hit in four innings of relief while striking out three and walking two.
WP/SE was scheduled to travel to Liberty to face the Eagles in a non-conference regular season finale on Friday.
