On a cool Thursday afternoon the county’s middle school sports seasons got underway as the Cranberry Wildcats opened up their baseball and softball seasons.The Cranberry softball team and baseball squads traveled to Mitchell County for matchups against Harris Middle School.
Cranberry’s softball squad endured cool and soggy weather conditions as they fell in its season opener to the Lady Blue Devils by a 24-0 final score. Harris tallied six runs in bottom of the opening frame and was able to keep control of the contest through the contest which was shortened to four innings due to the conference’s ten-run rule.
The Lady Wildcats have a young group of players that will continue to learn and grow under the management of head coach Angel Dugger.
The Cranberry Wildcats baseball team took to the diamond for their season-opener at Mine Creek against the Harris Blue Devils. Despite allowing four unearned runs due to errors in the opening frame, the Wildcats clawed back into the contest but fell short in a 6-3 final score on Thursday evening.
Ian Franklin got the starting nod for the Wildcats, but the Cranberry defense suffered early inning jitters. Four errors in the bottom of the first contributed to four Harris unearned runs in the first inning. Harris added a fifth run in the bottom of the second inning to take a 5-0 advantage, but Franklin settled down to hold the Harris club scoreless through the rest of his outing.
The Wildcats in the meantime refused to give up, bouncing back with a run in the top of the fifth to cut the deficit to 5-1. Alex Barker walked to lead off the frame, and Jake Hinshaw belted an RBI triple to score Barker and put the Wildcats on the board.
The Blue Devils looked to put the game away in the bottom of the fifth when they scored an insurance run off reliever Stetson Stafford to lead 6-1, but Stafford worked out of a jam as he struck out a batter and induced another out to prevent further damage.
Despite the Wildcats registering a total of 12 strikeouts at the plate through six innings, the team believed in itself and stepped up in the top of the seventh with a strong rally.
As night fell on the diamond, Hunter Guinn and Zack Guy each drew walks, and Shea Buchanan singled to load the bases. Bryce Pittman and Stafford laced back-to back-RBI singles to drive in a pair of Wildcat runs to load the bases and cut the deficit to 6-3.
Cranberry had the potential go-ahead runner at the plate in the top of the seventh, but an Alex Barker line drive was snagged on a great play by the Harris shortstop to quell the rally and end the game.
In spite of the loss, Cranberry head coach Phillip Greene was pleased with his team’s play and sees great potential in this year’s squad. “I have a great group of seventh graders, and a group of eighth graders who are sound in the game of baseball,” Cranberry manager Phillip Greene remarked. “We had the early errors, but we’ve only had two weeks of practice, only getting on the field for three days before playing the first game. We had a number of young players who were playing their first middle school game but they did a good job recovering from those errors. They deserve a lot of credit in turning the game around.”
Cranberry starter Ian Franklin threw 82 pitches in four innings, striking out four Harris batters. “Ian gave up the five runs early on, and only one of them was earned through 4 innings,” Coach Greene added. “I may have pushed him further than I should have, but he wanted the ball for the fourth inning, so I sent him out and he pitched well.”
Stetson Stafford came on in relief, giving up only one run over two innings of work, striking out a pair of hitters. “Stetson did a great job throwing from the longer middle school distance,” Greene explained. “He had never thrown from that far before coming up from Little League. He started with a couple of little bobbles, but settled down and pitched his way out of a jam.”
Shea Buchanan battled through an illness to go 1 for 3 with an RBI base hit, while Stetson Stafford had a pair of hits and centerfielder Bryce Pittman was 2 for 2 with a pair of singles and a walk in the contest.
Cranberry baseball is scheduled to travel to East Yancey early in the week, with a scheduled home game against Bowman on Thursday evening. Avery Middle School is preparing to begin its conference season within the next week as a number of changes to the team’s schedules have taken place within the past several days to push back the start of their respective seasons.
