The freshmen on the Logan County varsity baseball team not only got a good look this week at the two teams which dominate 13th District standings nearly every year, but some of them played big roles in the split decisions which leave the Cougars and the Wildcats tied for first place in district standings.
The Monday-Tuesday home-and-away, back-to-back pitchers’ duels found Franklin winning 2-1 at the Wildcats’ home Monday and the Cougars earning a walk-off 3-2 victory at home Tuesday.
Freshman TySean Thomezek pitched five innings of one-hit ball at Franklin and then hit a walk-off, three-run homer for the win on Tuesday. Classmate Jonas Hayes pitched the final inning at Franklin without allowing a runner to reach base, needing only nine pitches tp record the three outs. Another ninth grader, Lyndon Wilson, got a hit and scored the Cougars’ lone run at Greg Shelton Field.
Joining Wilson with hits in the first game were Tripp Wadlington, Noah Mosley and Brady Hinton. Seniors Hinton and Hunter Holloway worked the only walks off Wildcat pitcher Boy Blankenship, who struck out six Cougars and walked only two.
Thomeczek allowed just the one Franklin hit, which came from Hendrik Blanckenberg. He struck out seven but walked eight Cats. Both of the F-S runs came from batters who had walked, Brady Delk and Liam Heinze, and the RBIs were by two who had walked, Braylong Turner and Griff Banton.
Cougars 3, F-S 2
Coach Ethan Meguiar’s Cougars had totaled no runs on three hits and a walk going into the bottom half of the seventh and final inning Tuesday. The hits had come from the bats of Thomeczek, Hinton and Wadlington and the walk by Mosley.
The seventh began with Mosley stroking what officially was credited as a single, but he found a way to get to second base. Tate McLean followed that with the Cougars’ second walk. Then on Delk’s first pitch, Thomeczek blasted the ball over the left field fence to end the game with a win and putting the two teams into a 5-1 tie at the top of district standings.
McLean pitched the complete-game win. Neither of the two runs he allowed was earned. He gave up four hits and two walks while striking out three.
Delk had given up no runs on three hits and one walk in the first six innings before being bombed by the three runs in the seventh.
The Wildcat hits were all singles by Kolton Turner, Jaxon Glass, Heinz and Delk. Braylon Turner and Delk scored the runs.
This has been Coach Matthew Wilhite’s team’s lone loss in its last seven games.