Joseph City’s baseball team is in the midst of a losing streak having dropped their past eight games including two played last week. Despite those losses they still remained 12th in the 1A power rankings when this week began. They will need to put together some wins in the final three weeks of the regular season in order to make the post season as only 16 teams qualify for the 1A state tournament.
Last week’s first loss was a home game with Williams on Wednesday. The Vikings scored in both the first and second frames, grabbing a 5-0 lead before Joseph City got on the board with a single run in the third. Williams padded their margin with three more in the fifth, two in the sixth and they pushed across four runs in the top of the seventh. Joseph City didn’t score again until the bottom of the seventh where their rally came up way short scoring just three runs in the 14-4 loss.
Rance Haddox led at the plate going 2 for 4. Cameron Baldwin was also 2 for 4; Jacobson Begay went 1 for 3, with a double; Avery Buckley, 1 for 3; KJ Kinlicheenie, 1 for 3; and Colter Westover, 1 for 3.
The Wildcats used four pitchers in the loss. Jesse Hulsey, Baldwin, Buckley and Kaden Moss combined to work the seven innings. Collectively they allowed 14 runs on 15 hits with eight strikeouts and walked four.
Joseph City traveled to Sedona on Saturday where they held a brief lead before falling 10-5 to the Scorpions. The Wildcats scored twice in the first to open the game, but quickly fell behind after Sedona scored five first inning runs. The Scorpions added two more in each the fourth and fifth innings to lead 9-2. Joseph City picked up three runs in the top of the sixth, but that would be their final runs in the five run loss.
The Wildcats had only six hits in the game. Buckley went 2 for 3, with a double; Baldwin was also 2 for 3 and also doubled; Kinlicheenie was 1 for 4; and Hulsey went 1 for 2.
Buckley worked four and one-third innings giving up nine runs on nine hits with two strikeouts and walked three. Moss pitched the final one and two-third frames allowing one run on one hit and walked three.
The Wildcats headed into this week with a regular season mark of 4-8. They hosted Mogollon on Monday and will host Mayer in a double-header contest on Friday. Next Tuesday they travel to Mogollon.
