By Charles Whisnand
Appeal Sports Editor
LAS VEGAS - With his team's psyche definitely in an improved state after it had broken a four-game losing streak, WNC coach D.J. Whittemore used a bit of reverse psychology.
After the Wildcats had just beat Pima Community College 8-4 on Saturday at Sierra Vista High, Whittemore wasn't about to allow his young team to rest on its laurels. In no uncertain terms, he lamented how his team lacked killer instinct, which forced him to use Jose Barajas out of the bullpen for the second time on the day and even to have Josh Creveling stir in the bullpen, today's likely starter.
Even though the Wildcats won, they could have made it a lot easier as they left 10 baserunners and failed to score three runners from third with less than two outs. But it was still a much needed win coming after a 1-0 loss in the opener of the doubleheader.
Highlighting the day were the efforts of Barajas, who provided four innings of scoreless relief, and starters Josh Moody and Kyle Farrell. Farrell didn't allow an earned run over six innings, striking out eight and walking none while giving up just three hits. During one stretch he retired 10 straight and in that span struck out six of eight hitters.
"It felt real good," Farrell said. "We needed a win. Everyone was real anxious to do well and keep our composure. I think this was just a big stepping stone for us. We just needed to get back on the right track."
Farrell needed just 75 pitches to go six innings and Whittemore gave much of the credit to catcher Chuck Howard's pitch calling.
"Our pitching's really been great," Whittemore said. "I'm very happy with the pitching."
The Wildcats took a 2-0 lead in the first when it executed a hit and run with Logan Parsley and Brian Barnett on base. With both runners going, Davis Banks singled to make it 1-0 and WNC added a run on a bad pickoff throw to make it 2-0.
WNC took a 5-2 lead in the third on the strength of Marshall Kinnebrew's RBI double and back-to-back walks to Brett Moravec and Travis Feiner that forced in a run to make it 5-2. Jerome Pena's RBI single made it 6-2 in the sixth.
Matt Klein came on in the seventh and allowed a two-run single that cut the lead to 6-4. Klein did strike out two and could have been out of the inning, as WNC had a chance at an inning-ending strike 'em out, throw 'em out double play, something that Whittemore also brought up in his postgame talk.
"Absolutely, human psychology," Whittemore said about his postgame talk. "You can't beat a horse when it's tired.
"When you lose you want to have them motivated and keep them confident and when they're confident, you want to tell them the can be better."
Barajas came on and pitched 2.1 scoreless innings for the save, striking out four. The Wildcats took an 8-4 lead in the eighth after Andrew Reid belted his second double. After Travis Feiner's bunt single, Kyle Gutchewsky's squeeze bunt brought in Reid to make it 7-4. The Wildcats then executed another hit and run with Parsley hitting an RBI single to make it 8-4.
Barnett and Feiner also had two hits and Howard added a hit for WNC.
The two teams will finish their series at 10 a.m. today at Sierra Vista.
PIMA 1, WNC 0
Moody and Barajas were outstanding, but it wasn't enough to overcome the effort by Pima's Rene Garcia and Marc Damon, who combined on a four-hit shutout.
The only run that came in the fifth was unearned. Moody struck out two and walked one through 4.1 innings. Barajas didn't allow a run over the last 1.2 innings, striking out three.
But Pima starting pitcher Garcia shut down the Wildcats until being pulled in the sixth with two outs after Brian Barnett, who had two of WNC's four hits, doubled. Damon came on and got the last four outs.
Logan Odom walked with two outs in the seventh and pinch runner Mike Long stole second, but he died there. Lance Ray doubled and Kevin Schlange singled for WNC's other hits.
After allowing two hits in the first, Moody got an inning-ending double play and didn't allow another hit until the fifth. He was aided by a diving catch in center field by Cliff Shepard in the fourth.
Moody didn't pitch all fall due to a shoulder injury. Before the injury, Moody consistently threw in the high 80s and would hit the low 90s. On Saturday, Moody threw in the mid-80s and touched 87, but his placement of his pitches kept Pima off balance.