A fantastic performance on the mound and solid offense lifted Danbury to a 10-0 win Tuesday at Big Sandy.
Danbury started in the first inning, with a single, fielder’s choice, wild pitch and sacrifice for a 1-0 lead.
In the second, a couple of hit batters, an error, sacrifice bunt scoring a run, suicide squeeze for another, and RBI-single had Big Sandy down 4-0.
Meanwhile, Panther Aidan Fiala was unhittable on the mound. The senior right hander threw seven perfect innings, striking out 17 of the 21 Wildcats he faced.
“The kid threw phenomenal,” Big Sandy coach Will McInnis said. “They are expected to win district, but we are going to try to throw a kink in that Friday night. They've got a pretty good lefty that will throw against us on Friday. He is also a senior.”
Danbury picked up a run in the third inning on a sacrifice fly, two runs in the fifth on an RBI-single and fielder’s choice, two more in the sixth on an RBI-single and sac fly, and a run in the seventh with an RBI-triple.
The Wildcats have a beautiful new turf field for baseball and a team that is growing into it. They played a freshman at shortstop in Ezekiel Angel and in right field with Jasper Hardy. The freshman right fielder also came on in relief for the final inning.
“We've got some great building blocks to build to, we've just got to bring it all together. They are a very good bunch, they are bought in and work extremely hard,” McInnis said of his Wildcats.
The ‘Cats are 2-1 now in district, defeating West Hardin the week before 4-3 at home, then walloping the Oilers 24-0 in Saratoga.
“We played some really good 4A and 5A teams in non-district like Hamshire-Fannett and Lumberton. We played with them and did really well against them,” the coach said. “It is progressing. We are very young, we only have three seniors, and we are going to get there once we meld together.”
McInnis said the team has struggled with runners left on base.
“We didn't necessarily get on base tonight because we faced a dominant pitcher. He is the toughest we have faced this year. He is 88-90 and has good command. He has a very good arm.”
Next week, Big Sandy will travel to Sabine Pass Tuesday, then host the Sharks Friday at 6 p.m.
