MHS baseball team drops two to WI
The early-season rust continued to hamper the Marion High School baseball team in their third and fourth games of the season. Marion head coach Sean Spoonts and his team fell to Wichita Independent Thursday in a double-header match-up, 10-5 and 10-0. After the game, Spoonts said he thought things were optimistic at the onset of the two games.
"The start of the game seemed promising for us," Spoonts said. "We had defensive miscues and walked a few batters early on which made Clayton (Chamberland's) pitch-count high."
In the first game, Marion and the Panthers were tied at two after three innings of work. In the fourth inning, both teams added a run to their score, knotting it up at three.
In the fifth inning, Independent took advantage of the Marion defense, rattling off three unanswered runs. After the fifth, Marion trailed 6-3. In the sixth inning, things became bleak for the Warriors. Four Panther players crossed home plate in the sixth to Marion's one. Despite scoring two more runs over the course of the next two innings, Marion fell to Independent 10-5.
Chamberland pitched five and one-third innings, striking out two and compiling an 8.0 ERA.
Leading the way offensively for the Warriors in game one were seniors Neil Waner and Chamberland. Waner was three-for-four for the afternoon, including scoring two runs. Chamberland was two-for-four and scored a run.
In the second game, the Warriors were shutout of the contest as the Panthers had their way with pitcher Jimmy Shipman. Shipman struck out six batters in six innings, but allowed 12 hits and compiled 7.0 ERA.
"I was not pleased with our hitting in the second game," Spoonts said. "Their pitcher mixed his pitches up well and kept us off balance the whole game."
Chamberland was the lone Warrior to make contact in the loss. The senior went two-for-three in the game.
The Warriors hosted Council Grove Tuesday and will travel to Canton-Galva Thursday.
