The Bayfield Wolverines had a nice unbeaten stretch to start the season.
That was thanks in large part to strong hitting performances across the board, as Bayfield High School entered Friday’s play batting .438 as a team.
But Bayfield’s average took a 38-point dive Friday as the Wolverines (5-1) recorded only two hits in a 9-0 loss to the Piedra Vista junior varsity team on the second day of the Piedra Vista Invitational junior varsity tournament.
“They had a pretty good pitcher, and we didn’t have anything good on him. It was a rough day at the plate for us,” BHS head coach Jonathon Qualls said.
Friday’s loss came eight days after BHS defeated Piedra Vista’s JV 12-11 at Farmington High School’s tournament.
Taed Heydinger and Trey Lange recorded the only two hits in the game for the Wolverines. BHS struck out 10 times and walked three times.
“They had a better pitcher than we’ve seen all year; we didn’t adjust to it,” Qualls said. “He was throwing harder than what we’ve seen and had a curveball, too. We didn’t get the ball in play, and it is hard to win a game when half of your outs are strikeouts.”
Qualls knows facing a good pitcher this early in the season will help his team better prepare for the stronger arms they will face once the team begins playing varsity competition in Colorado. All six of the Wolverines’ games this season have come against JV opponents.
“Those are the type of pitchers we expect to see in our league and once you get into the postseason,” he said. “Hopefully it will prepare us to try to make it to the postseason and help us when we get there.”
Matthew Knickerbocker took the loss on the mound Friday for BHS. Freddy Edwards and Taed Heydinger also pitched for the Wolverines.
“Our pitchers did pretty well overall. We had a few walks, but mostly plays just didn’t go our way,” Qualls said. “There was a chopper in the first inning that was out of the reach of our third baseman, and later there was a line drive to left field we tried to dive and catch, but it ended up going under our guy and rolling all the way to the fence to score two or three more runs. It just didn’t go our way.”
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