Story and Photos by Rusty Ellis
The Upperman Bees got timely hitting and solid pitching in their 6-2 win over Livingston Academy on Friday night.
The Wildcats struck first in the opening frame, as Creed Pierce drove in LA’s first run with an RBI single down the third-base line. Upperman wouldn’t wait long to respond however, as Caden Colson and Caleb Rawdon each drove in runs with fielder’s choices. Will Penland added an RBI single of his own to give the Bees a 3-1 lead at the end of the first.
Neither team could scratch a run across until Livingston got their only other run in the game in the fourth, as Hayden Ledbetter scored on a passed ball. Upperman once again answered quickly, as Julian Llano drove in a run in the bottom half of the frame with a single.
Carter Shanks gave the Bees some insurance in the fifth inning, as he smacked a two-run home run to centerfield to push the lead to 6-2.
This is where the Bees’ pitching staff really shined, as the trio of Caden Shanks, Braden Williams and Wyatt Curtis limited any damage Livingston was able to do and locked down the 6-2 victory.
Williams earned the win for the Bees with three innings of one-run ball with six strikeouts for head coach Wes Shanks.
“It was a difficult game because we tried to play Wednesday and got cancelled because of weather,” Shanks said. “We had the guys, the last two days, at 7:30 A.M. working on the field…I told them before the game that they put the work in today, yesterday and the day before. Let’s take advantage of the opportunity we have to sweep a conference opponent.”
The trio of Shanks, Williams and Curtis combined to allow only two runs while striking out 12 total batters, and what was even more impressive was their ability to limit any damage Livingston was able to do.
For Shanks, he says it’s promising to see his pitchers work through adversity.
“You want to see how kids respond,” Shanks said. “That’s promising. As coaches, we don’t like guys (being) in those situations, but when you face good ball clubs, that’s baseball…it was exciting and good (to see).”
As far as what this team still has ahead of it, Shanks is quick to point out it’s still early in the season, and the main thing he wants to see out of his team improvement-wise is just better focus throughout games.
“We make too many mental mistakes, and a lot of high school teams do that,” Shanks said. “I tell the guys all the time that we are a good team, but we need to be very good. And once you become very good, you become great…we’ve just got to get better each game, and keep our focus on the conference title. That’s where we are at.”
