Wildcats struggle in twin bill sweep

MORAN — A similar chorus haunted Marmaton Valley High’s baseball team Monday.
Struggles at the plate and in the field led to 12-0 and 18-1 losses to visiting Northeast-Arma.
Northeast took advantage of 12 walks and two hit betters against Marmaton Valley starter Sage Hall in the opener, while the Wildcats were no-hit over five innings.
“We had some guys strike out looking,” Wildcat head coach Derek Scharff said. “We need to learn to battle at the plate and foul pitches off to stay alive.”
The Vikings took control with four in the first and seven in the third.
Hall surrendered two hits while striking out five.
Marmaton Valley did better offensively in the second game, but fell apart in the third and fourth innings.
Northeast erupted for four in the third and 12 in the fourth to expand a 2-1 lead.
Marmaton Valley’s run came courtesy of an RBI single by Keagan Boyd in the first inning to score Jake Kress. Sage Hall added a single. Chris Bowman and Gage Adams both walked.
Greg Neria pitched, surrendering nine walks and four hit batters. He gave up seven hits.
“Greg also struggled throwing strikes,” Scharff said. “We did pretty well minimizing the damage until the fourth inning, when the wheels came off. We had a lot of errors that inning that allowed Northeast to take a big lead.”