West Platte’s Gunner Smith struck out five batters in the 3-2 win over Rock Port in the West Platte Invitational on March 25.
The Blue Jay baseball team (2-2) split a pair of regular season games before doing the same in the West Platte Invitational on March 25 to start the spring off .500.
West Platte has a tradition of kicking the spring off with two home tournaments – the Blue Jay Bash and the West Platte Invitational – but the weather put a damper on those plans this year. The Blue Jay Bash is played to begin each season, but it was cancelled due to inclement playing conditions on March 18.
The Blue Jays began the season with a road matchup with King City with Union Star (1-1) on March 21. West Platte came out with a 15-1 win, which was its largest season opening margin of victory since 2010.
The Wildkats struck first, scoring a run in the bottom of the first inning, but the Blue Jays finally got rolling in the top of the third inning. The first three West Platte batters were walked in the inning that saw nine runs scored.
Kane Cogan had the first RBI of the season – a ground out to second base – then there were four consecutive walks to put West Platte up 4-1. Xavier Reynolds and Jhett Chandler both had RBI singles, along with Cohen Kite reaching first base on an error, which sent Gunner Smith across home plate.
West Platte added four runs in the fourth inning and two runs in the fifth inning to come out with 15 unanswered runs to close out the contest, despite only having six hits on the day. Reynolds had three hits and Smith had two hits – as they both finished with three RBIs – as Ezra Stigman struck out seven batters in two innings.
West Platte opened KCI Conference play with a 15-3 loss to Lawson (3-1) in the home opener on March 23. The game was competitive early, with the Cardinals taking a 2-0 lead after one inning and the Blue Jays tying the game in the third inning thanks to a couple of Lawson mistakes.
The Cardinals had 13 hits on the day and added 11 more runs – five in the fourth inning and eight in the sixth inning – with the Blue Jays’ only other run coming off a Lawson error in the fourth inning. West Platte had five errors in the contest and has now lost four straight matchups to Lawson with the Blue Jays’ last win in the series dating back to March 21, 2019.
In the West Platte Invitational, the Blue Jays defeated Rock Port (1-3) 3-2 and lost to Maranatha Christian Academy (1-1) 15-5. This was the second straight season West Platte came away with one total victory from its home tournament.
Opening the day with a matchup with Rock Port, West Platte scored three runs in the first two innings and sat on that lead for the rest of the contest. Stigman put the Blue Jays up 1-0 with a line drive RBI single to left field in the first inning.
In the ensuing inning, Smith stepped up to the plate with two outs and two runners on and connected on a line drive single to right field, sending Jaxon Turner home. Reynolds singled on the next at-bat to load the bases and Kite was walked to score another Blue Jay run, making the score 3-0.
Rock Port scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth inning on a West Platte error. The rest of the game was scoreless, and the Blue Jays finished with seven hits as Reynolds, Stigman and Cogan all had two.
West Platte struggled in its next game, a 10-run loss, to finish 1-1 in the tournament. The Blue Jays will be back at home to take on Penney (0-3) on March 30.