OVERLAND PARK — The Marmaton Valley High School Wildcats’ historic season came to an end Monday with a 10-0 loss to Rossville.
The Wildcats could not gain any offensive momentum with only a pair of hits while falling in the opening round of the state tournament quarterfinal, located at Blue Valley West High School.
“I’m proud of this group; they had a heck of a season, and they worked their butts off,” Marmaton Valley coach Adam Borth said. “They deserved to be here and earned the right to play in this game. This is something to build on. We get used to the feeling of how a state tournament is, build on it and go on to the next year.”
Senior pitcher Tyler Lord took the loss in his final start for Marmaton Valley. Lord tallied a team-leading three strikeouts, allowing nine runs on seven hits and three walks. Only four of those runs registered as earned runs as Marmaton Valley committed four costly errors.
“Rossville was solid. They could pitch, play good defense and hit the ball pretty well,” Borth said. “We had some self-inflicted errors, we made some mistakes, especially early in the first. That hurt us and switched the momentum we had to start the game, which carried it onto the field.”
Senior shortstop Garrett Morrison and sophomore outfielder Kris McVey registered Marmaton Valley’s only hits with a pair of singles. The Wildcats seemed to gain a bit of traction in the opening frame, but 10 unanswered runs from the Bulldogs over the next five innings decided the contest.
With the loss, the Wildcats end the season with a 20-6 record. They graduated most of their starting lineup earlier this month, including Tyler Lord, who will be playing for Central Christian College this fall. Filling the holes left by Lord, as well as fellow seniors Brevyn Campbell, Todd Stevenson, Garrett Morrison and Chris Ferguson will not be so easy next season.
“Each year, the seniors work harder and harder and each year we’re performing at a higher and higher level,” Borth said. “We’re going to keep doing that. It’s going to be hard to replace this year’s seniors. We’re losing a bunch and that type of production is difficult to replace, but hopefully we’ll rebuild and get back at it.”
