The Wildcats are limping into the 1A State Tournament on the heels of a two game losing skid. They dropped their two final regular season games last week with a road loss at Williams on April 24, followed by a home loss to Northland Prep on April 25.
Despite those two losses the Wildcats are still in the State bracket as the 10th seed and will face seventh seeded Hayden in the first round at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, May 4. With a win they would face either No. 15 Rock Point or No. 2 Ray at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 5. A loss in either game would bring their season to a close.
Playing in Williams last week, the Cats gave up 14 runs to the Vikings in the first three innings and only scored once in the top of the fourth in what finished up as a 14-1 five-inning loss. Joseph City had just two hits in the game, one by Avery Buckley and the other from Jay Edwards.
Wildcat pitchers KJ Kinlicheenie, Kaden Moss and Jesse Hulsey combined to allow 14 runs on 10 hits with two strikeouts and walked seven.
Things didn’t get much better at home the next day. Hosting Northland Prep the Wildcats again gave up 14 runs, although this time they came in the fourth and fifth innings in the shut out 14-0 loss. Once again, the Cats had just two hits, one from Cameron Baldwin, which was a triple and the other from Edwards.
Rance Haddox and Buckley both worked on the hill giving up 14 runs on seven hits with three strikeouts and walked five.
Hayden is 8-10 on the season while the Wildcats enter the state tournament with an overall record of 10-14.
