Ashden Turrill of North Union dives for second base during a ball game against Mt. Gilead. The Wildcats won 10-1 and increased their record to 10-8 on the season.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Sam Dillon)
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The Wildcats of North Union are a team that has had some tough outings down the stretch.
They were, however, able to right the ship Friday for the Wildcat seniors’ last regular season game at home. North Union was able to tally a 10-1 win over Mt. Gilead.
North Union head coach Klarke Ransome said he couldn’t think of a better way to send off his seniors.
“It is kind of nice to send this guys off on the right foot,” he said. “We have had a couple of close games against some good opponents where it could have gone either way, but unfortunately it didn’t go ours. To get back on the winning side of things is real nice, especially on senior night.”
The Indians were able to squeeze across an early run to put the pressure on the Wildcat hitters.
North Union erased the early deficit with a few contact hits and aggressive base running that pulled the game back in their favor 2-1 after one inning.
“We wanted to be aggressive,” Ransome said. “It was nice to have guys on (base). We have hit the ball pretty well the last couple of games, but to be able to run aggressively on the base paths and get runners in scoring position and be able to produce some runs, it definitely helped.”
And aggressive they were, as the Wildcats came up with 10 stolen bases during the game.
That put them in scoring position whenever a hitter safelty got to first.
The Wildcats continued to increase the score in their favor. Through five innings of work on the base paths, NU amassed 10 runs .
Meanwhile on the mound, starting pitcher Zach Ahern was able to keep the Indians’ bats quite after giving up the early run.
“I want to make people beat us, whether it is at the plate putting the ball in play or if we are on the mound, we want to throw strikes and make them hit it to beat us,” Ransome said. “Walking guys makes it extremely difficult. I think against BV (Buckeye Valley) we had one walk and tonight we had three walks, so I think guys are buying in.”
The Wildcat defense was able to keep everything in front of them to play error-free baseball and keep the bags empty to help seal the win.
The Wildcats increase their record to 10-8 on the season and were scheduled to resume a suspended game against Galion today at 9 a.m.
MG 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 5 2
NU 2 1 2 2 3 0 x 10 11 0
WP- Ahern, 5 IP