Wildcats Claw Greyhounds, 9-0, in Clayton

Wildcats pitcher Ben Lovell could do little wrong in a non-conference contest against the Clayton Greyhounds baseball team on Thursday at Clayton. 

The Wildcats defeated Clayton, 9-0. Lovell, a sophomore, struck out 12 batters, gave up one hit and walked just one in seven innings of action. The shutout marks his second of the season.

“I had a great game,” Lovell said. “But (catcher) Ryan Allee called a great game for me, and our defense had no errors.”

Lovell said he often attacked each batter first with a fastball, then switched to a curve or change-up. Wildcat coach Rich Van Gilst said Lovell “keeps improving with every game.”

“He has presence,” Van Gilst said. “I’m not sure if he feels like he has total command out there, but he’s working on it. He has presence, and it appears that he’s in control.”

Van Gilst said his team’s defense improved from the previous day’s 9-3 win over Lutheran South.  

“When the pitcher strikes out as many as he did today, you don’t see many errors,” Van Gilst said. “But we pride ourselves in playing good defense. We had some problems yesterday with that, and today we did better.”  

The Wildcats pulled ahead 1-0 in the first inning courtesy of a two-out, one-run triple from Allee. Westminster scored three more runs in the third inning.  The first two were unearned runs. Conner Einterson’s one-run single made the score 4-0.  

The Wildcats continued their offensive onslaught in the fourth inning: Tate Matheny’s (.549) three-run double made the score 7-0. Westminster tacked on two more runs in the seventh. Einterson’s one-run single gave the team an 8-0 lead and Luke Turner’s one-run double made the score 9-0. 

The Wildcats banged out nine hits against the Greyhounds. Trevor Mills started on the mound for Clayton. Noah Eby relieved Mills in the fourth inning. Catcher Chris Daughtery had Clayton’s only hit: He singled in the fourth inning. Clayton’s best hitter, Jeremy Phillips (.451), left the Westminster game in third inning with an arm injury.

“We struggled with their pitcher,” Clayton coach Craig Sucher said. “It’s was a continuation of yesterday and what’s happened to us in the last few games against kids who throw hard.”

Clayton drops to 9-14 with the loss. The loss extends the Greyhounds’ losing streak to six games. Westminster improves to 17-3 with the win.