A feisty cat fight will be fought as Neosho Wildcats take on Waynesville Tigers at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The timing is sure in Neosho's favor as the team sits on four straight wins at home while Waynesville has been banged up by seven consecutive losses on the road dating back to last season.
Neosho's pitching crew heads into the match hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Saturday. They were the clear victors by an 11-0 margin over St. Mary's-Colgan. The Wildcats might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won four games by seven runs or more this season.
Neosho got a great performance from Alex Rodriguez as he didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only one hit while striking out six over five innings pitched.
On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Liam McInturff, who went a perfect 2-for-2 with one home run, five RBI, and two runs. Those two runs gave him a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Bostyn Patterson, who went 1-for-3 with three RBI, one triple, and one run.
Neosho always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .536. That's the best OBP they've posted all season.
Waynesville never got on the board in their matchup on Thursday, but that sure wasn't the case in their game against Osage last Friday. They put the hurt on the Indians with a sharp 12-5 win. With that victory, the Tigers brought their scoring average up to 7 runs per game.
Ethan Heberling made a splash no matter where he played. On the mound, he struck out six batters over three innings while giving up just two earned (and three unearned) runs off four hits. Heberling was also big at the plate, scoring a run while going 1-for-3. He also brought in three RBI, marking his first of the season.
In other batting news, Sawyer Baker was incredible, going 2-for-3 with one home run, three RBI, and two runs. Carson Sutphin was another key player, scoring two runs while going 3-for-4.
The win got Waynesville back to even at 2-2. As for Neosho, their victory bumped their record up to 6-1.
