For the first time this season, the West Platte baseball team (7-6) fought its way to two games over .500 before dropping a contest against South Nodaway with Jefferson (10-1) on April 22.
West Platte has been unable to string together three or more wins in a row at any time this season but has earned back-to-back victories on two occasions. Most recently, the Blue Jays took down Cameron (4-8) at home on April 19, before coming out on top in a conference road game against Mid-Buchanan (7-4) on April 21.
In the matchup with Cameron, West Platte took an early 2-0 lead in the first inning, but its next seven batters failed to get on base until the bottom of the fourth inning. With one out on the board Logan Lawson reached first base on a Dragon error, which led to three more Blue Jay runs.
Ezra Stigman grounded out but Jaxon Turner – who came in as a courtesy runner for Lawson – scored. A Gunner Smith single and Mason Montez triple gave West Platte a 5-0 margin by the time the fourth inning came to an end.
The Dragons caught fire in the ensuing inning with four runs to cut the deficit to one, but an RBI single by Lawson helped the Blue Jays add to the lead. West Platte added four hits and three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to beat Cameron 9-4.
In West Platte’s third KCI Conference game of the season, it took on Mid-Buchanan and entered the day with a 1-1 conference record. The Blue Jays had lost their last four matchups with the Dragons as a 7-4 win on April 5, 2019, was the last time West Platte came out on top over the KCI rival.
The Blue Jays ended the drought with a 6-3 victory, despite only having two hits and zero runs in the first four innings. West Platte had a huge fifth inning – entering with a two-run deficit – when a Tanner Rowe single on the first at-bat ignited a five-run outing.
Rowe scored the first run after Xavier Reynolds doubled and then West Platte took a lead when two Blue Jays crossed home plate following a single by Lawson. Cohen Kite added an RBI single and Lawson eventually scored on a Mid-Buchanan error to put West Platte up 5-2.
West Platte’s Wyatt Smith, above left, tosses the ball to Logan Lawson, above right, after Cameron made contact on a pitch early in the Blue Jays win over the Dragons on April 19.
The Dragons scored one run in the bottom of the fifth inning, but West Platte matched that with Lawson’s third RBI in the ensuing inning. Stigman was on the mound for six innings and struck out seven batters to give the Blue Jays a 2-1 conference lead and a temporary two-game advantage over .500.
The Blue Jays’ quest for a third consecutive win was denied when they fell 4-1 on the road against South Nodaway with Jefferson. West Platte will enter the last stretch of the regular season with four conference matchups in its final six games.