WNC win streak reaches 10

Lance Ray couldn't catch a break. Not only was he already 0-for-3 at the plate for the day, but he was 0-for-2 with bats. Both bats the Western Nevada outfielder brought to the field Saturday broke at the handle.

Ray had to dispatch his dad to pick up two brand new bats from his house. When his dad returned to John L. Harvey Field, Ray didn't have time to apply pine tar to the bat before he was due up at the plate in the bottom of the sixth with two runners on in a one-run game. But his grip didn't fail him as he banged a hanging changeup over the right field fence to help the Wildcats take a 5-3 win Saturday over Eastern Utah.

"I didn't expect to go through two of them in the first game, I've broken one all year," Ray said.

Ray's home run kept the 18th-ranked Wildcats from leaving more runners on base then the 16 they left on in the two games. The Wildcats won the second game of the doubleheader, 5-2. The fact that most of the runners left on base were the result of hard hits that found their way to waiting gloves, left WNC coach D.J. Whittemore feeling at ease.

"Game one was probably our best game of the year really," Whittemore said. "We batted 30 times and didn't strike out and I counted 25 out of the 30 at-bats quality at-bats. That's our highest percentage of the year.

"We hit a lot of balls at them and that's baseball. You get worried when you give away a lot of at-bats and when you don't give away a lot of at-bats sometimes you score and sometimes you don't."

The Wildcats lead the Scenic West Athletic Conference at 19-3 and 25-9 overall. If they sweep Eastern Utah in their doubleheader at 11: 30 a.m. today, they will move two games ahead of Southern Nevada (19-5, 27-12), who they will face next week at home.

Ray's home run was the insurance the Wildcats needed. They had a 3-0 lead going into the sixth inning, but the Golden Eagles broke up Jordan Lewis' no-hitter by putting up two runs in the inning and one more in the seventh on an error. The final run drove Lewis out of the game and forced WNC to bring in Kramer Champlin. The freshman threw just one pitch to end the threat and the game.

Last week, Whittemore's pitching philosophy against Colorado Northwestern differed in the same situation.

David Carroll had a no-hitter going through five innings, but the coaching staff ruled an error a hit in the third inning and pulled Carroll after five in order to get more of the under-used pitching staff some mound time.

"Really, we had a chance to get about six or seven outs in the sixth," Whittemore said of Saturday's game. "(Lewis) was still sharp and his pitch count was low. I liked both guys there. Either one probably could have gotten the job done.

"This week we're trying to win."

In the second game, the Wildcats saw a promising performance from Josh Moody, who came out of the bullpen. The sophomore pitched 3.2 innings of one-hit ball and had three strikeouts and no walks.

He has been rehabbing a broken pinkie finger on his pitching hand for nearly six weeks and has made only four appearances this season. Whittemore said that he would wait on a decision to bring the team's ace back to the starting rotation until after his bullpen session later this week.

"It felt good to get out there more than a couple innings," Moody said. "This was the first time I could really let it go after the pinkie injury. It's just refreshing to get back out there."