Wildcats Dominate Diamond Saturday

By Taylor Mitchell
The Leader

The past two years, Indianola Gentry has been a problem for the Wildcats of Cleveland High.

But not on Saturday as Cleveland defeated the Rams 11-1 at Sank Powe Field.

“We finally played them pretty well,” Cleveland coach Steve Wies said. “It’s been two or three years since we played a decent game against Gentry, so it was nice to come out and play the way we’re supposed to against them.”

The Wildcats were able to invoke the 10-run mercy rule against Gentry in the sixth inning when senior Julain Beamon hit a long shot towards center field, that would be caught, but Mason Zeigler would tag up from third base to score the 11th and final run.

Andrew Whalen picked up the win for Cleveland, pitching all six innings, allowing one run on five hits with six strikeouts and one walk.

“Real good game. Andrew has worked real hard,” Wies said. “ It showed on the pick offs and his delivery to allow Julian to throw three or four runners out.”

But more impressively were the six pick-offs Whalen and his catcher, Beamon, earned.

“We knew they were going to run,” Wies said. “Of course, we’ve tried to stress to our pitchers all year long to work on that foot speed because they haven’t been giving our catchers a chance to throw runners out.

“Andrew (Whalen) is one of the better ones at it. Of course he has a sharp quick delivery with the ball.”

Whalen also went 2-for-3 at the plate with one run scored.

Jake Linkous, who normally finds himself on the mound, led the Wildcats at the plate, going 2-for-2 with two walks (one of which was intentional) and a home run. He also had two RBI.

“He’s been on base for us,” Wies said about Linkous’ hitting performance this season. “Right now he’s one of our top nine, not necessarily batting average, but his on base percentage.”

Linkous’ two-run homer over the centerfield wall came in the third inning that also drove in Parker Noblin to put Cleveland up 6-0.

The Wildcats scored a pair of runs in the first, second, third and fourth innings.

Earlier in the week the Wildcats lost a pivotal district game to Oxford 15-3.

This week, Cleveland host Clarksdale on Tuesday, then will travel to Lafayette County.

On Saturday they will host Greenwood and Riverside starting at 1 p.m.