The West Central 16U baseball team played three games in Brookings between Friday, July 8th and Saturday, July 9th. West Central finished 1-2 over the three games.
West Central 6, Brookings Bullets 16U 4
The first game of the weekend was a win for West Central over Brookings Bullets 16U on Friday. West Central rallied for five runs in the bottom of the fifth to earn the come-from-behind victory.
Brookings scored in the top of the first inning, but West Central responded with a run as well in the bottom of the inning. Jesse Jost scored on an error by the catcher to tie the game 1-1. Brookings took the lead with three runs in the top of the fifth inning, but West Central also had their big inning, and all with two outs.
Cain drew a bases-loaded walk for the first run. Cain Grocott scored on a wild pitch. Cade Vanderwoude had a two-run single and then later scored on a steal of home to give West Central a 6-4 lead. Neither team scored in the sixth inning, and Brookings was held scoreless in the top of the seventh.
Vanderwoude had a hit and two RBIs. Jost had a double. Cain finished with an RBI. Cyrus Maras pitched five innings and allowed four earned runs on three hits and four walks with two strikeouts. Maison Schuldt pitched two innings and allowed just one hit and two walks with one strikeout.
New Ulm C 5, West Central 3
West Central had a 3-1 lead after five innings of play, but New Ulm scored four times in the bottom of the sixth to get the 5-3 win on Friday.
Keaton Vessells had an RBI ground out in the top of the first for West Central. Carter Evans reached on an error that scored Grocott in the top of the second. Will Nester scored on an error in the top of the third that had given West Central a 3-0 lead.
Nester had both of the hits for West Central. Vessells had an RBI. Vessells also pitched 5 2/3 innings and allowed five runs, all unearned, on six hits and six walks with 11 strikeouts. Maras pitched 1/3 of an inning.
West Central Falls 4-3 in Final Game
In the final game of the weekend on Saturday, West Central lost a back-and-forth game 4-3.
West Central found themselves trailing 2-0 after the bottom of the third inning, but tied the game with two runs in the top of the fourth. Vessells had an RBI sacrifice fly, and Schuldt had an RBI ground out to tie the game 2-2. After a run in the bottom of the fifth, West Central tied the game in the top of the seventh to force extra innings. Grocott scored on a wild pitch to make it a 3-3 game. The walk-off run came in the bottom of the eighth on an error.
Jost, Nester, and Grocott all had singles in the game. Vessells and Schuldt each had an RBI. Vanderwoude pitched seven innings and allowed three runs, none of them earned, on 10 hits and two walks with three strikeouts. Schuldt pitched 2/3 of an inning and allowed an unearned run on a hit and a walk with a strikeout.