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The Weimar varsity baseball team gutted out a pair of high-pressure victories to get out to a perfect district start. In both games, the Wildcats relied on their defensive efforts in the field and on the mound to lead them to some hard-fought wins. Weimar created an early lead and used their defense to hold on to win for their first district victory. They followed with an intense, 11-inning game against Ganado where Weimar once again used its stellar defense to hold off their opponents as the Wildcats found enough timely hits to claim their second district win.
Vs Schulenburg, W, 3-1
The Wildcats needed some late game magic to claim their victory over the Schulenburg Shorthorns. Weimar battled through a scoreless game for the first four innings. Both teams struggled to get the scoreboard moving until Clayton Zinnante led off with a hit in the top of the fifth inning to get things moving for Weimar. After stealing a few bases, he paid off the leadoff hit with the game’s first run. The Wildcats scored on a few more runs in the top of the seventh inning as they created a lead late over their opponents.
Weimar had help holding on to the lead after a strong pitching performance from Brady Henke and a save from closing pitcher Huxton Kloesel. Henke pitched six innings and secured the first out of the seventh to complete his day with nine strikeouts.
Vs Ganado, W, 1-0
Over the spring break vacation, the last thing the Wildcats could do was relax as they faced a Ganado Indians squad that pushed them to their limits. Weimar once again leaned on their defensive efforts and solid pitching to keep the game close in the latter innings. However, neither offense could get much going as they had difficulties getting on base. The tight match continued through regulation as both teams remained deadlocked on the scoreboard. After seven innings of cagey play, the teams entered extra innings to decide a winner. After four innings of extra play, the Wildcats finally put themselves in a position to score and take the lead. With Brady Henke on the base path already, Hudson Ervin got his second hit in three tries to bring the winning runner home and claim the walk off victory.
“I’m really proud of the way our team competed for 11 innings tonight,” Head Coach Colton Maiorka said of his squad, “... It’s a great feeling to be sitting 2-0 in district, now we need to take care of business this next week when we go to Louise.”
Henke had another solid night on the mound, going seven innings plus an extra at-bat in the eighth on the way to eight strikeouts. Huxton Kloesel finished the game off and pitched out four strikeouts in four innings of work.
