Big Sandy baseball picked up two wins in back-to-back days last week.
Wednesday afternoon, the Wildcats throttled the Leggett Pirates, 19-0. The struggling Pirates didn’t have success against Wildcat pitching. Combined, Big Sandy pitchers struck out seven of the nine Leggett batters they faced and only threw a total of 28 pitches across three innings.
The dominance continued offensively for the Wildcats. Ezekiel Angel went 1-for-3 with an inside-the-park home run, a walk, RBI, a stolen base, and three runs. Corbin Cude went 2-for-3 with two doubles, a walk, RBI, stolen base, and two runs. Gracin Glover went 2-for-2 with a triple, a run, and an RBI. Shudey Beene-Williams went 1-for-1 with an inside-the-park homer, three RBIs, and a run. Gus and Jasper Hardy both also hit triples.
The big day for the Wildcats came from Josh Oliver. With a 1-0 count and the bases loaded in the bottom of the second inning, Oliver smashed a fly ball that kept going back, and over the left-field fence for a grand slam.
The grand slam will go down in Wildcat history as the first Big Sandy home run over the wall on their new baseball field.
"He’s has improved tremendously since the beginning of the year," Big Sandy coach Kasey Glover said of Oliver. "He’s putting in a lot of work lately and I’m happy to see that come to fruition for him."
Thursday night, Big Sandy beat the Hull-Daisetta Bobcats, 12-2.
Wildcat starting pitcher, Corbin Cude, was sensational on the mound. He pitched a complete game one-hitter, throwing only 67 pitches across five innings, allowing no earned runs and striking out five.
“Corbin has given us nothing but quality outings since the beginning of district," Glover said. “He’s gonna give us a great chance to win a ballgame."
Big Sandy’s offense got things going in the second inning with two runners on base. Daniel Barker laid down a sacrifice bunt, but the Bobcat pitcher overthrew his first baseman. The error allowed the two runners to score and let Barker advance to third base. He then scored himself on a passed ball, putting the Wildcats up 3-0.
The Bobcats got on the scoreboard in the third inning after a couple of Big Sandy errors and a double brought them to within a run at 3-2.
The Wildcat bats erupted in the bottom of the inning with back-to-back doubles by Jasper Hardy and Corbin Cude, followed by a sacrifice bunt from Eli Murphy. Then, a double by Conner Ratcliff and a Bobcat error allowed three runs to score. The Wildcats scored five more runs in the inning on three walks, four hit batters, and another Bobcat error that extended Big Sandy’s lead, 11-2.
Scoring again in the fourth inning, the Wildcats won 12-2 after the fifth.
Angel went 2-for-2 with a triple, two walks, and a run. Jasper Hardy went 1-for-3 a double, two runs, and an RBI. Cude was 1-for-2 with a double, hit by a pitch, with two RBIs, and a run. Conner Ratcliff went 1-for-1 with two RBIs, hit by two pitches, and scored two runs.
The two wins put Big Sandy in second place in district with a 6-2 record and 10-11 for the season. Next up for the Wildcats will be the Spurger Pirates and a non-district game against the Douglass Indians Saturday, with both games at Big Sandy.
Then, the Wildcats face two contests with playoff implications for both teams versus the Evadale Rebels on April 14 and 17.
