Hornets baseball team struggles in three losses
Hornets pitcher Theo Millin (foreground) and center fielder Brett Wagner (background) watch shortstop Ben Bird tag out Seneca's Gage Wall on a stolen base attempt as Hornet second baseman Clint Mitchell celebrates. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Alex Manning takes a lead off of first base as Seneca's Jacob Payne tries to keep him close to the bag. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Senior Jonah Klema stretches to catch a throw at first base to get the force out on the Royals' Jacob Payne. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
The Hornets' Theo Millin slings a pitch against the Royals. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Right fielder Dakota Cox waits for a play to develop against Seneca. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
By Derick Kelly
The Wauzeka-Steuben Hornets baseball team opened up the last full week of the regular season on Monday, May 13 with the first of two games in four days against Seneca.
The visiting Hornets were smothered by the Royals as the Hornet offense only managed two hits and two walks in a 21-0 defeat. Brett Wagner and Cohen Redman each singled in the loss, while Ben Bird and Carter Lomas both reached via walk.
The two teams met up in Wauzeka three nights later and once again the Hornets were stopped by the Royals in a 11-1 loss in five innings.
The Hornets were limited to just two hits and two walks in the loss as Redman (2-for-2 with one RBI), Wagner (one walk) and Alex Manning (one walk) accounted for the Hornets offense.
Wauzeka-Steuben ended the week the following night by traveling to Belmont. Despite the Hornets offense collecting nine hits, it was not enough to snap the Hornets losing streak as the Braves earned a 4-2 victory.
The visiting Hornets grabbed an early lead with one run in the first but the Braves scored one in the third to tie the game and three in the fourth to take a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the game. W-S pushed a run across the top of the seventh but it was not enough.
Wagner (3-for-4 with two runs scored) and Lomas (2-for-4 with one RBI) each had multiple hits in the loss for the Hornets.
Wauzeka fell to 7-9 overall and 6-7 in the Ridge & Valley Conference with the three losses.
They Hornets regular season (and conference) finale at Kickapoo on Monday, May 20 was cancelled with no makeup date.
Seeding for the WIAA baseball tournament was recently completed and the Hornets received the six seed in their D4 sectional grouping and will host the eleventh seeded New Lisbon Rockets in a regional quarterfinal game on Thursday, May 23 at 5 p.m. The winner will advance to play the winner of the Seneca-North Crawford game in a regional semifinal contest on Tuesday, May 28.
