UNIONTOWN — The Yates Center Wildcats suffered a pair of losses against Uniontown.
The Wildcats fell 11-1 and 18-3 in their Three Rivers League debut, but Coach Kathe Hamman was impressed at times by the performance of her team.
“We hit the ball tonight, but we hit it right at them,” Coach Hamman said. “We tried some different things and some girls who have never played just to see what they had. We just have to be more aggressive on defense.”
Sophomore outfielder McKynzee Burkholder scored Yates Center’s only run in the opener after reaching home plate on a single by senior second baseman Anna Marando. Senior pitcher Kinley Morrison took the loss despite striking out nine batters over five innings but allowed six walks and 10 runs on eight hits.
“We have six or seven and we’re still trying to fill spots, and move people around,” Coach Hamman said. “I told the girls, we’ve had two outings. We have 26 more games. You can’t get down.”
The Wildcats were much more formidable in the finale, but Uniontown scored 18 unanswered runs to sweep the doubleheader. A trio of errors allowed senior outfielder Lauren Schultz to round the bases for Yates Center’s first run, then Burkholder drove in a pair of runs with a single.
The Wildcats could not hold on as Uniontown poured on the runs after their first at-bat.
Burkholder had a team-leading two hits and two RBIs. On the mound, junior Cayten Cummings took the loss. She tallied a pair of strikeouts over three innings while allowing 11 runs on six hits.
“We have to find who’s going to fit best,” Hamman said. “We’ll get it settled. We just need a confidence boost.”
They look to even their TRL record Monday on the road against Oswego. First pitch for Monday’s game is at 3:30 p.m.
