Wildcats play Marlins at home

On Tuesday, April 1, the Wildcat Baseball team played the Port Aransas Marlins at home and came up short, 14-0. The Marlins are leading the district, which includes Port Aransas (7-0), Kenedy (6-1), Agua Dulce (4-3), Refugio (4-3), Pettus (2- 5), Woodsboro (2-5), Yorktown (1-4), and Skidmore-Tynan (0-5). Yorktown won a district game over Pettus. 1A versus 2A do not count in district standings. In the home matchup, the Marlins jumped off to a five run lead in the first inning. In the second inning, Randon Zuniga hustled and caught a foul ball from first base, recording the first out. Weston Gaida caught a player coming home for the second out while pitcher Gunner Mungia charged up and threw to first baseman Zuniga to end the inning. The Marlins proved to be a strong opponent. After changing pitchers the batter hit the ball over the fence on the first pitch, bringing in three runs. While at the plate, Mungia made contact but the second baseman snagged the ball out of the air. The next Wildcat struck out, and then Aaron Guzman launched a ball into the outfield but it was caught by the centerfielder to end the third inning, 14-0. The fourth inning was much improved for the Wildcats as they only faced four batters to record three outs. Guzman struck out the first batter. Third baseman Mungia fielded a routine hit and threw out the player at first. The third batter was hit by pitch and then Guzman struck out the fourth batter. Unfortunately, the bats weren’t hot for the Wildcats and they went three up and three down in the bottom of the fourth. However, the Wildcats strung together another good defensive inning at the top of the fifth. Colton Rogers had a highlight inning. He caught two pop ups to second base against the first two batters. With runners on second and third, Rogers recorded the third out by once again catching a ball from second. Regrettably,the Wildcats struggled at the plate, not being able to get on base. In the fifth, the Marlins were in position to score but the Wildcats stepped up to the challenge. After walking the first batter, Zungia struck out the second batter faced. An error by the short stop put runners on first and second. The next batter was hit by pitch to fill the bases, but Zuniga was not fazed as he recorded the next two outs by striking out a player and charging the ball from the mound and throwing another opponent out at first. The Wildcats saw improvement at the plate in the bottom of the fifth but weren’t able to execute any runs on the board. Guzman hit a grounder up the middle for a single. Gaida had a base hit to right field before the Marlins were able to get three outs and end the game in five innings, 14-0.