By LIONEL TIPTON
EL DORADO, Kansas – After seeing their bats silenced in the opener by Clearwater sophomore Nate Robinson, hits began to fall in Game 2 on Monday.
But it beating Clearwater takes more offense than what El Dorado could muster, and the Indians pulled out a 7-4 victory in Game 2 for the sweep Monday.
Robinson pitched a complete game in the opener, which Clearwater won, 6-1.
He held the Wildcats to just two singles and struck out 10.
El Dorado coach Adam McCormick used the time between games to make some adjustments, and there were some dividends. The Wildcats got multihit games from seniors Hunter Hamm and Zac Jacobs, and their pitching showed flashes of being able to stop the talented Indians attack and holding them scoreless in the final two innings.
“These guys battle,” he said. “They battle all the time. There’s no ‘give-up’ in them; there’s no quit in our guys, and that’s something we try to preach and talk (about).
“(We tell them) ‘Don’t quit; don’t give up; anything can happen. Just keep working, and good things are going to come.”
The Wildcats never led in the game, but McCormick remains optimistic that his club can keep making progress.
“I just told the guys (that) we’ve got 18 regular-season games left,” McCormick said. “We can rattle off 18 in a row and go 20-4, and we can be sitting pretty when it comes to regionals.
“This (Monday’s games) can go one of two ways – we’ve just got to get to work, get back to practice (Tuesday) and get better.”
It won’t be easy, and a brutal schedule won’t help.
El Dorado (2-4) will be at home Thursday against a perennially tough Wellington program, then will play host to another AVCTL Division IV rival in Andale next Monday at McDonald Stadium.
The Wildcats will then have eight consecutive road games (four doubleheaders) the rest of April, making trips to Augusta, Rose Hill, Winfield and Arkansas City before returning home to face Cheney on May 5.
Clearwater put a runner on base in all seven innings of the opener, and the experienced Indians took advantage, McCormick said.
“They’ve had a couple of down years the last couple of years, but they were young,” he said. “Now, they’re more seasoned and everybody has been through a full varsity season – they’re a good club.
McCormick is convinced that his team is capable of gradually getting better, but it primarily will come down to one key thing – situational hitting.
“We just need to keep playing and working, and I think we’ll be fine,” he said.
He said he thinks his players will improve as the season progresses.
“We have a lot of talent and a lot of drive .. we’ve just got to get back to work,” McCormick said. “Work on some different things; work on some two-strike approaches, work on what we’re going to do in situational hitting. The first four games of the year (against Circle and Wichita Collegiate), we did a pretty good job of driving guys in with two strikes, putting balls in play. (Monday night) it just didn’t happen.”
El Dorado had just five baserunners in the opener and senior Easton Perkins drove in junior Grady Scanlon with the lone run, so McCormick knew something had to change in Game 2.
“I thought our approaches weren’t very good in Game 1, but … Robinson kept us off-balance,” McCormick said. “He did everything that a pitcher needs to do, and we couldn’t get comfortable in the box.”
Once again, the Wildcats fell behind in the early innings, but in the final four innings, sophomore lefty Will Lechtenberg and junior right-hander Jordan Linson held Clearwater to one run and three hits.
McCormick said he is already seeing his younger players contributing.
“These are their first varsity experiences,” he said. “This is Will’s first time out on a mound in two years after his knee surgery. Same thing with (sophomores) Charlie (Beggs), Jett (Sheffler) and Hudson (Poe). It’s super-early in the season; we’ve just got to keep working, get back to basics and fundamentals and find a way to get the job done.”
El Dorado did manage single runs in the second, third, fifth and seventh innings in Game 2 but could only manage to get within three runs.
“In Game 2, our approaches got better,” McCormick said. “I thought we put more barrels on the ball in Game 2. They had better clutch hitting than we did. The ball didn’t bounce our way, and that’s baseball.”
Hamm’s three hits included a triple in the fifth – El Dorado’s only extra-base hit in the doubleheader – and he then scored on a wild pitch. He also had one of the Wildcats’ two RBI and had two runs scored. EHS’ other run scored on an error.
“We’ve got some seniors stepping up, so we’ve got to get back to working on some of the basics (Tuesday) … we’ve got to keep refining our approach, get back into the (batting) cage and get better,” McCormick said. “We’ve got a really good Wellington team coming to us Thursday.
“It will be a tough test for us on Thursday, but I think we’ll be locked in and ready to go.”
Clearwater’s attack was paced by senior catcher Jake Wright, who had two doubles and a single in the two games. Senior Easton Carter had three singles in the two games and scored three of the six runs in the first game.
Game 1: Clearwater 5, El Dorado 1
Clearwater 101 030 0 – 5 9 1
El Dorado 000 100 0 – 1 2 1
W – Robinson. L – Soper. 2B – G. Clevinger, Wright (Clr).
Game 2: Clearwater 7, El Dorado 4
Clearwater 042 010 0 – 7 8 1
El Dorado 011 010 1 – 4 7 0
W – Carter. L – Scanlon. 3B – Hamm (ElD). 2B – Wright (Clr).
