Alpena JV Baseball team has an incredible bounce back performance against Traverse City Central
ALPENA, MI – The varsity baseball and softball teams for the Alpena Wildcats were on the road taking on Big North rivals, Traverse City Central. However, the Junior Varsity Wildcats were also in action back at home in Alpena, and they had quite the eventful and teachable day against the trojans.
On the mound for Alpena is Caleb McEwen. He opened the first inning with three strikeouts after giving up a triple. He really had himself a great start for Alpena. On offense in the 2nd, bases are loaded for Kaleb Donajkowski. It’s a great knock over the third basemen into left field. Two runners will score for the Wildcats and that’s a 2rbi single from Kaleb Donajkowski.
The Wildcats also had one outstanding play on defense in the opening game. The trojans hit a groundball over to first, the ball bounces off the glove of Michael Kriese. The second baseman Hunter Cohoon makes the grab in midair and throws it to throws in time. An outstanding play to get the out by the Wildcats, avoiding an error by the skin of their teeth. They would keep Traverse City Central off the score board for three straight innings. Caleb McEwen picked up six strikeouts in just three innings, you can’t ask for a better start than that.
Despite being up 3–0 through four innings in the first game, the Wildcats fell apart with error after error, and would lose game one of the day 16–3. Despite that, the team would rally in game two as they would capitalize on mistakes made by the Trojans and would win by a fifth inning mercy rule in game two with an 11–1 victory. Head coach Ian Lundquist talked about how big of a learning moment that second game was for these JV kids.
“It’s a character builder for the kids.” Coach Lundquist said. “To be able to put that behind them and come back and really play some solid ball for the second game is a big deal.”
