Article and Photo by Nate Parrish
A night after completing a regular season sweep over Jefferson the Whitewater High School baseball team ran into a buzz saw as McFarland swept both games of a doubleheader by scores of 14-10 and 9-0 eliminating Whitewater from the conference title race. Whitewater had several chances after falling behind 9-2 and 11-4 in game 1. They crawled back to 11-10 after 6 innings but McFarland scored 3 in the top of the 7th to put the game out of reach. Whitewater left 9 runners on base and hit several lineouts to end innings with runners on base that could have changed the tide. McFarland had 7 extra base hits and Whitewater committed 3 errors that proved costly. In the second game, Whitewater was held to three hits as McFarland collected 10 hits in a 9-0 final. Coach Pease was very disappointed in the overall performance “We came out flat and fell behind but got back into the game late, just could not get a couple key hits to keep an inning going in that first game. We need to play defense better and pitch better, if we make a couple plays early in the game it changes the momentum, once McFarland got going the hitting became contagious, give them credit for hitting the ball well but we need to do a better job across the board.”
Seniors Jimmy Duval, Bryce Parrish and James Dedrick were recognized for their 4 years in the program as Whitewater celebrated Senior night. All three were Freshmen when Coach Pease took over as Head Coach and they were a big part of rebuilding Whippet baseball. All three Seniors are 4-year letter winners with Jimmy and Bryce 4 year starters and James a 3 year starter. All three have had various all-conference recognition and are Team Captains this year. Coach Pease would like to thank the Seniors for their leadership and what they have meant to the program. Coach Pease said “All three will hold a special place with me, not just because of the first kids to go all 4 years with the Coaching staff but the type of individuals they are. They are just really good kids that show up and work hard every day to get better and it has been a pleasure to not only coach them but get to know them, they have bright futures ahead of them”.
