Thursday’s high school baseball game on Shilling Field at Mylan Park involved two teams looking to reach the next level.
Those levels just happen to be almost worlds apart.
University High School is looking to develop a program under first-year head coach Brad Comport that can compete for sectional, regional and eventually state titles. Meanwhile, across the diamond was Preston High School coach Glen McNew and his young squad that is at the beginning of building a program.
“We are just trying to build on what we got right now,” McNew said. “We got a bunch of freshman and sophomores starting and we got two really good classes coming up. We are going to be young for a couple of years, but we hope to push a team like University soon.”
Thursday was not that day for the Knights (2-11) as the Hawks (12-13) rolled to a 12-0 victory.Even in the loss, McNew said he was happy to see his young team pick up some experience. “We have a couple sophomores hitting well right now,” McNew said. “You are always going to take some lumps when you got young kids. Mistakes are going to happen when you have seven or eight freshmen and sophomores starting.”
Preston threatened to score first as it got back-to-back singles from Mason Chaney and Kevin Wilson, but the two-out rally was stifled by UHS starting pitcher Cody Thomas who combined with Tyler Furbee and Zach Harman to toss a three-hit shutout. Jessie DeSantis added a single in the second inning for Preston’s only other hit in the contest.
The Hawks took advantage of two walks, one Preston error and four singles to grab a 5-0 lead in the second inning. Noah Braham slugged a two-run single in the inning while Jett Walters and Kyle Wyatt each had RBI singles and Wenkai Campbell drew a bases-loaded walk.
“I just liked how our guys made the routine plays and did everything right with what they can control,” Comport said. “I thought we had really patient at bats, I thought we did a good job of throwing strikes and I thought we made all the plays that came to us. I was most proud of the zero errors today. We just simplified the game and didn’t try to do too much.”
University scored six more times in the third inning as the Knights committed two errors and UHS racked up three more hits. Wyatt had a two-run single while Aaron Forbes added an RBI single, and Campbell had an RBI sacrifice fly.
The Hawks finished off the scoring in the fourth inning of the five-inning mercy-rule shortened contest when Jackson Oleska scored on a wild pitch. Wyatt led the UHS offense with three hits and the three RBIs while Forbes had two hits with Braham and Campbell each recording two RBIs.
Preston returns to action today when it travels to North Marion for the final regular-season contest before opening Class AAA sectional play on Tuesday at Bridgeport.
“We got to get our kids in the weight room and get stronger,” McNew said. “It’s a building process. Unfortunately, we aren’t in the reload position, we are in the rebuild position. Next couple years I think it can be pretty good.”
University finishes its regular season today when it travels to Musselman for a 7 p.m. contest and then opens Class AAA sectional play on Tuesday when it hosts Buckhannon-Upshur at 5 p.m.
By ERIC HERTER
Preston (2-11)
McNew 3 0 0 0, Brandt 2 0 0 0, Chaney 2 0 1 0, Wilson 2 0 1 0, Belanger 2 0 0 0, Turner 2 0 0 0, Snyder 2 0 0 0, DeSantis 2 0 1 0, Wharton 2 0 0 0. Totals: 19 0 3 0.
University (12-13)
Latocha 1 1 0 0, McDonough 0 0 0 0, Campbell 2 0 0 2, Braham 3 1 1 2, Forbes 3 1 2 1, Templeton 2 1 0 0, Jansen 1 1 1 0, Oleska 0 1 0 0, Thomas 1 2 0 0, Furbee 1 0 0 0, Walters 2 2 1 1, Wyatt 3 2 3 3. Totals 19 11 8 9.
PHS 000 00 – 0 3 3
UHS 056 1X – 12 8 0
WP – Thomas 3ip, 3h, 0r, 0er, 0bb, 3dk
LP – Chaney 2ip, 5h, 9r, 9er, 5bb, 1k
