By Kevin Cunningham
Sports Correspondent
A few nail-biters took place this past week for the Whitewater High School baseball team, which entered with a 7-4 record overall. The first game came against Evansville on April 28 on the road.
In the bottom of the first inning, Evansville initially struck with one run, but the Whippets answered with a run of its own in the top of the second. The game then remained scoreless until the top of the sixth inning, when the Whippets scored another run, leading to its 2-1 victory.
Evansville totaled five hits in the game as a team compared to the Whippets’ four. The lone RBI from Whitewater was tallied by Jacob Lee. No player in the game had more than one hit for either team.
On the mound, Jason Curtis went the full seven innings for the Whippets, striking out 10 batters and not allowing a walk. Curtis’ one run scored against him was considered unearned.
A day later, the team travelled to play Elkhorn in a non-conference game with an 8-4 record. In this game as well, the Whippets fell behind early.
After Whitewater failed to score in the top of the first inning, Elkhorn scored a run in the bottom of the first, second and third innings before the Whippets scored in the top of the fourth. Elkhorn then scored in the bottom of the fourth, making it 4-1.
In the top of the seventh, the game turned around, as the Whippets scored three to tie the game. The game went extra innings, leading to Whitewater scoring one in the top of the eighth to win it, 5-4.
The opposition out-hit the Whippets in this game as well, 9-8. Of the team’s eight hits, only one player, Curtis, recorded more than one, with two.
Whitewater only had three RBIs for its five runs, but Elkhorn issued the team eight walks. Jimmy DuVal got walked three times, going 1-for-2 at the plate in his other at bats, driving in and scoring a run.
Jacob Lee pitched six innings for the Whippets and then Bryce Parrish came in for the final two, allowing just one hit, no runs and striking out four of the 10 batters he faced. The Whippets were then 9-4 overall heading into its last game of the week on May 3 at Jefferson, and lost its final nail-biter, 2-1.
Jefferson was the team that initially struck first in this game, scoring a run in the bottom of the first inning. The game then went scoreless until the top of the fifth when Whitewater evened the game at one. In the bottom of the sixth, though, Jefferson scored the final run of the game off of Curtis.
Curtis pitched all six innings and his two runs allowed were earned. He struck out seven batters while walking two throughout the contest. Offensively, Julian Sonn was the only Whippet to record a multi-hit game, going 2-for-3.
