Photo | Paul Adkins
Photo | Paul Adkins
Logan High School’s Troy Burgess pitches to Scott’s Cody Blevins in Friday night’s game which was won 11-1 by the Wildcats.
Photo | Paul Adkins
Photo | Paul Adkins
Logan’s Troy Burgess was the winning pitcher as he struck out five batters and scattered five hits over five innings.
Photo | Paul Adkins
Photo | Paul Adkins
The Wildcats’ Cody Frye (4) slides safely into second base as Scott’s Garrett Castle tries to scoop up the ball.
Photo | Paul Adkins
Photo | Paul Adkins
Logan’s Benji Adkins takes a cut in the win over the Skyhawks.
Photo | Paul Adkins
Photo | Paul Adkins
LHS third base coach Kevin Gertz waves in Cody Frye (4) in Friday’s rout at home over Scott.
Photo | Paul Adkins
Photo | Paul Adkins
Logan freshman shortstop Z. Minnick takes a cut in the Scott game on Friday night.
Photo | Paul Adkins
Photo | Paul Adkins
Wildcats’ coach Roger Gertz huddles up his team in the middle of the first inning.
Paul Adkins
Sports Editor
A baseball team can never seem to have too many pitchers.
It doesn’t matter if it’s Little League, high school ball, college or the Major Leagues.
Pitchers are always a hot commodity.
The Logan High School baseball team might have found another reliable hurler as Troy Burgess led the Class AAA No. 6-Wildcats to an 11-1 win at home over Scott at Logan High School’s Roger Gertz Field on Friday night.
Burgess pitched a complete game five-hitter as he struck out five, walked none and hit one batter in the five-inning game.
Logan, which improved to 16-3 on the season, ended the game early by plating three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to envoke the 10-run mercy rule.
The Wildcats’ winning streak now stands at 11 games. Logan hasn’t lost a game since falling in a pair of contests to out-of-state teams at Myrtle Beach, S.C. Logan only has one loss to an in-state team this season.
Gertz said the right-hander Burgess pitched well. With just one week left in the regular season, pitching will be key in Logan’s post-season run.
“He’s coming on and he’s got so much stronger than last year,” Gertz said. “He’s got a good arm but he couldn’t get his curveball down tonight for whatever reason. But he’s going to be a good pitcher for us. He’s really improved from last year. He’s pitched some JV ball and we started him down at Myrtle Beach in the first game that we played down there against Watertown, New York, and he pitched good there. He’s going to step in next year for us and will be a really good pitcher.”
Logan banged out 11 hits in the win.
The Wildcats were led offensively again by third baseman Alex Mareske, who was 2-for-2 with a double, a triple and two RBI. On both hits, Mareske went to the opposite field, crushing balls that rolled to the right center field wall.
“I think both were curveballs and he drove them the other way,” Gertz said of Mareske. “We’ve got two or three of them who are pulling off the ball and they’ve got power that way.”
Leading 8-1 in the fifth, Scott went to the bullpen with relief pitcher Cody Brown but he couldn’t get a single out as six straight Logan batters reached base and the Cats ended the game early.
DH Justin Oney led off with a single. Pinch-hitter Trace Butcher was then safe on a Scott error — one of five committed in the game by the Skyhawks. Josh Rein, another pinch-hitter, then had an infield single to load up the bases with nobody out.
Then it was pinch-hitter Chase Preston, who ripped a two-run single to make it 10-1.
Cody Frye then reached base on an infield single to set the table for pinch-hitter Kyle Harvey who had a walk-off, RBI single to make it 11-1 to end the game.
Logan jumped on top of Scott starting pitcher Devin Bayer with a four-run first inning, aided by three Skyhawk errors. Shortstop Z. Minnick’s two-run double to left made it 2-0. First baseman Benji Adkins then had an RBI single before Mareske’s sacrifice fly to left which made it 4-0.
Mareske then ripped an RBI double to the right center wall in the bottom of the second, making it 5-0.
In the fourth, Logan scored three more runs to increase the lead to 8-0. One came home on Mareske’s RBI triple to the wall in right center. Minnick walked and scored on a dropped fly ball for one of the other runs. Mareske later scored on a wild pitch to account for the eighth run.
Scott got on the scoreboard in the top of the fifth as Cody Blevins singled and scored on catcher Forrest Spurlock’s high towering double, which bounced to the wall in left center.
Logan then touched home three times in the last half of the fifth to put a halt to the game.
Adam Mareske, Logan’s catcher on Friday night, added a single. Matthew Greene and Trent Dalton also had one hit each.
Bayer and Spurlock were each 2-for-3 at the plate for Scott.
Skyhawks’ starter Bayer went four innings and yielded eight runs and seven hits with four walks, a hit batter and three K’s.
The Wildcats were scheduled to get back into action on Saturday afternoon at home against Wyoming East. Logan then hosts Mingo Central on Monday at 7 p.m. before hosting Cabell Midland on Tuesday at 7. The contest with Midland could possibly be wiped out if the Knights are going to have a game to play in the Mountain State Athletic Conference tournament.
On Wednesday, LHS goes to Winfield before hosting Nitro on Thursday at 7 and Huntington on Friday at 7.
“It’s a tough week coming up,” Gertz said.
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