Wildcat baseball earns home sweep of Ottawa

The Louisburg baseball team couldn’t have asked for much better start to its season and it continued Thursday at home against Ottawa.

The Cyclones, who are perennially one of the tougher teams in the Frontier League, left Louisburg with a pair of losses — including one in walk-off fashion.

Louisburg scored the winning run on a wild pitch to win, 4-3, in the opener. The Wildcats used that momentum in the second game as it got out to a big lead and held on for a 10-5 victory.

The Wildcats have now won six of their first seven games to start the year.

“It’s always good to leave with a sweep,” Louisburg coach Kade Larson said. “Ottawa is a good team every year and is coached really well. The guys played really well all night and found a way to get the job done.”

Louisburg (6-1) took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second on RBI doubles by Carter Willey and Luke Schultz and held a 3-1 lead into the fifth.

Starter Alex Saad pitched well before running into a little trouble in the fifth as the Cyclones scored two in the bottom of the inning to tie it. Saad pitched five innings and gave up just two earned runs and had two strikeouts.

Junior Evan Moreland came in for relief and pitched two scoreless innings with two strikeouts. Moreland got the win thanks to a rally in the bottom of the seventh.

With one out, Meade Rutherford and Bristol Barbour hit back-to-back singles. The Cyclones then intentionally walked Jayce Toms to load the bases.

On the next batter, Ottawa threw a wild pitch, which allowed Rutherford to score the winning run.

“We found ourselves tied and the guys didn’t flinch,” Larson said. “They found a way to win and that’s always great to see. Alex threw really well in game 1 and Evan came in to close the door. They each competed on the mound and challenged Ottawa all night.”

Senior Rylan Carty had a big game with two doubles and a run scored, while Willey also finished with two hits.

In the nightcap, the Wildcats jumped out to a 7-2 lead after five innings thanks to a big game from Schultz, who finished the game with three doubles and 3 RBIs. Carty also had two hits and 2 RBIs.

Willey added three more runs batted in, while Toms had two hits, including a double, to go along with an RBI.

The Cyclones tried to rally in the fifth inning as they had the bases loaded and no outs, but got a highlight reel play in left field from Willey.

The Louisburg senior made a running catch on a fly ball, spun, and threw home to get the tagging runner for a double play to steal all of the Cyclones’ momentum.

“Luke and Rylan hit the ball well,” Larson said. “They each had some big time at bats that got us going early. The defense stepped up when needed to. Willey had a huge play in left to keep them at a distance on the scoreboard. Having bases loaded and no outs, to now having two outs and no runs scored, was a game changer for us and got us the momentum back.”

Bristol Barbour and Max Amren combined to throw nearly six innings and gave up four runs between the two of them, while Barbour had four strikeouts. Peyton Simpson pitched the final inning with two strikeouts.

Louisburg will try and avenge its only loss of the season tonight as the Wildcats travel to Spring Hill for a single game. First pitch is set for 6:15 p.m.