West Platte’s Jaxon Turner and Cohen Kite celebrate after scoring the game winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning in the season opening win against South Holt on March 15.
WESTON – Coming out with back-to-back wins to start a baseball season for the first time since 2021, the Mitch Giger era is officially underway for West Platte (3-2).
Taking over as head coach for the Blue Jays this season, Giger has led his team to three wins with two losses coming in games when only scoring two runs. The season kicked off with a 4-3 win over South Holt (2-1) on March 15.
South Holt put one run on the board in the first and fifth innings and West Platte scored its first run of the season in the bottom of the sixth inning. Kane Cogan had an RBI double with two outs to send Jaxon Turner home.
The Knights added another run in the ensuing – and final – inning to put the Blue Jays behind 4-1. Cuin Vincent got on base with a hit to right field and Gunner Smith had an RBI single on the next at-bat to spark the late comeback.
Turner and Cohen Kite got on base due to a walk and an error, which led to Cogan having the game-winning hit: a ground ball single to right field. Cogan had three of his team’s seven hits in the season opening win.
West Platte didn’t waste time getting hits and runs in the next contest, beating King City (1-2) 14-2 on March 19. The Blue Jays scored 10 runs in the first two innings and added two more in the following two innings to come away with the one-sided victory.
The first loss of the season for West Platte came in KCI Conference play, against a red-hot Lawson squad (6-1) on March 21. The Blue Jays had to use five pitchers as the Cardinals came out on top, 17-2.
The West Platte Invitational brought in some schools of different sizes and the host fell to Class 4 opponent Chillicothe (5-3) on March 23. Smith scored on an error in the first inning as Turner reached first base for an early Blue Jay run before the Hornets answered with eight straight until Smith had an RBI single in the bottom of the seventh inning.
West Platte defeated Rock Port (2-3) by a score of 12-3 in the invitational. Cogan led the way with three hits, followed by Smith, Turner, Matthew Cook and Jhett Chandler all having two hits.
Smith struck out one batter and only allowed one run in six innings and freshman reliever Blaze Masoner had two strikeouts in one inning. The Blue Jays will look to continue the strong play when North Andrew (0-2) comes to town on March 27.