Bayfield’s bats have gone ice cold.
After starting the season 5-0 and averaging 11 runs a game while batting for a .438 average, the Bayfield High School Wolverines (5-2) have dropped two consecutive games while scoring a combined three runs.
“I was talking to the kids after the game, and we couldn’t figure out why or what was going on,” BHS head coach Jonathon Qualls said. “We don’t know how we have gone from scoring 10 to 12 runs a game to barely throwing three or four hits on the board.”
The Wolverines lost 4-3 on Saturday to the Farmington junior varsity team in the final game of the three-day Piedra Vista Invitational junior varsity tournament in Farmington. It was the same Farmington JV team the Wolverines beat 10-0 a week earlier. The loss came one day after the Wolverines were two-hit in a 9-0 loss to Piedra Vista’s JV squad.
“(Friday’s) pitcher was good, but the pitcher we saw (Saturday), we definitely should have hit,” Qualls said. “It seems like we are kind of slumping as a team here this whole weekend. We hope to come out of it.”
Bayfield’s bright spot Saturday was sophomore pitcher Brody McGhehey, who pitched six complete innings while earning only one of the four Farmington runs. He allowed five hits and struck out three while issuing three walks.
“Our defense didn’t pick him up when they should’ve, and our hitting didn’t make up for our defense,” Qualls said. “He threw a great game, and you couldn’t ask much more from a pitcher.”
Zane Phelps accounted for two of Bayfield’s five hits in the game.
BHS was up 2-1 going to the fifth inning, but a couple of errors back-to-back allowed Farmington to tie the game and eventually take a lead. The Wolverines tied the game 3-3 in the top of the sixth, but the Scorpions scored a go-ahead run in the bottom half of the frame to take a 4-3 advantage.
“We are going to get to practice and take a lot of (batting practice),” Qualls said. “Our pitching looked decent this weekend, but we gotta get the bats going again and refocus on our approach at the plate.”
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