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Article by Nate Parrish

The Whitewater High School baseball team opened the 2018 season with a win over Brodhead at home by a score of 11-2 (Box Score   ). Hunter Martin picked up the win in his first varsity outing by going 3 innings with no hits, 4 walks, and 2 earned runs. James Dedrick came in relief in the 4^th inning surrendering 2 hits but no runs on 5 walks. The bats started out a little slow but got going as the game went along scoring 1 run in the 2^nd inning, 2 runs in the 3^rd and 8 runs in the 5^th to break open the game. Jimmy Duval was 3-4 with a double and 2 RBI’s, Dylan Pease was 2-3 with 3 RBIs and Jordan Curtis was 2-4 with an RBI. Whitewater banged out 9 hits during the game. Coach Pease said he was happy to get the first one out of the way and walk away with a win but the team will need to cut down on the walks and hitters need stay off bad pitches early in the count to meet some of our goals. The next game will be Thursday, March 29 at Brodhead High School with 1^st pitch at 4:45 pm.

Rock Valley Conference is in its first season having 10 teams and is no longer split into a North and South. The conference is deep this year with 3 teams ranked in the Division 2 Preseason top 10 with other teams looking to make a run at the Conference Title. The conference favorites are Beloit Turner, who lost in the State Tournament last year, Jefferson which lost in Sectionals, Evansville which returns a large percentage of its line up and finished 2^nd in the conference last spring along with Whitewater which returns five 1^st or 2^nd team all-conference players. There are also a number of other teams that bring back experienced players that will want to have a say in how things shake out. It should be an exciting season in the Rock Valley Conference.