The Joseph City Wildcats’ baseball season came to a close last weekend, but not until they had advanced to the second round of the state tournament.

The Wildcats met up with Bowie/San Simon in the first round and dominated their opponents behind a strong effort from pitcher Taylor Pogue, who gave the Cats a two-hit shutout effort in the 11-0, five-inning win.

“Taylor pitched great throughout the game and we had excellent defense behind him. We played one of our best all around games of the season. I believe this was the first state tournament win we have had in eight years, so it was a big win for us,” said Coach Eric Miller.

Remington Baldwin had a big day, going three for three with an in the park home run, two RBIs and scored three runs. Dallas Elmer went one for three with a double, an RBI and scored a run. Brannick Carlisle walked and scored twice. Brandon Massey went one for three with an RBI and scored once. Robert Larsen walked and scored twice. Colton Spurlock went one for two with a walk. Cody Davis was one for three with one RBI.

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With the win the Wildcats moved on to face the second ranked team from the South Region, St. David. After playing through some early game nerves in the top of the first in which they allowed four runs, the Cats gathered themselves and tied the game in the bottom of the first with four runs of their own.

From that point neither team scored again until the fifth when St. David moved in front by a run. Trailing by three runs in the bottom of the sixth with runners at second and third, Wyatt Johnson bunted to bring in a run and then a run scored on an error in the same play, leaving the Cats down by one. Baldwin got on base and made it to second, bringing up Zachary Miller with two outs. He hit a single up the middle to tie the game.

In the seventh St. David hit a ball down the line which stayed fair by just two feet with two runners on base, scoring the go ahead and winning runs, and bringing Joseph City’s season to a close.

“We started out a little nervous giving up four runs we probably shouldn’t have, but we matched them in the bottom of the inning. The game was basically tied until the seventh, where we just came up a little short,” said Coach Miller.

Miller went two for four, stole three bases, had one RBI and scored a run. He also played a great defensive game at shortstop, according to his coach. Elmer was two for four with an RBI, and also played well on defense in center field. Massey was two for four with a double. Larsen went one for four and scored twice. Spurlock went two for four with an RBI and scored once. Wyatt Johnson had an RBI on a sacrifice bunt.

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The Wildcats end the season with an overall record of 19-5.

“The kids worked their tails off and should be proud of themselves. We are looking forward to next season and expect great things once again. We will be having an open field scrimmage from 4 to 6 p.m. every Wednesday throughout the summer for next year’s eighth through 12th graders. Hopefully, we can get a lot of kids out and build for the future,” concluded Coach Miller.