On Wednesday evening the Independence High School baseball team made the long trip to Cornelius for a non-conference baseball matchup with the Hough Huskies.
On the strength of dominant pitching by Jake Whitman and Adam Bennett the home team took a 5-1 victory of the visiting Patriots.
Whitman earned the win for the Huskies, allowing one unearned run on one hit, a first-inning single by center fielder CJ Brown, while striking out nine and walking four in 4.2 innings pitched.
Adam Bennett relieved Whitman on the mound and allowed no hits, no walks and no runs. He had 4 strike outs over the next 2.1 innings pitched.
Hough picked up a run in the bottom of the first after Jon Schuldt drew a walk and stole second. With two away Westley Lug doubled scoring Schuldt from second, and the Huskies were up 1-0 at the end of the first inning.
In the bottom of the second, Cade McGahan singled to right field. With McGahan on first, Indy attempted a pickoff play at first base. The ball got away from Indy’s Tyson Clawson, but luckily the ball hit the base umpire and forced the runner to hold up at second. However, McGahan scored on a Spencer DeMarcus’ double to make the score 2-0 after two innings.
The Huskies had a big fourth inning picking up three runs on three hits. Luke Osteen, Cade MGahan and Jeffrey Frey scored for the Huskies to make the score 5-0 after four full innings.
The Patriots got on the scoreboard in the top of fifth after Tyson Clawson led off with a walk. Hoven Perez followed and laid down a sacrifice bunt moving Clawon to second. With Clawson taking some big leads at second, Hough’s catcher attempted a pickoff, but the ball ended up in the outfield scoring Clawson for Indy’s only run.
Ben Hagan got the start for the Patriots. He gave up five runs on nine hits, while striking out two and walking one. Raja Milton took the mound in the sixth and faced four batters. Milton had two strike outs and one walk in one inning on the mound.
In the top of the seventh, Indy’s Jacob Haislip reached on an error and went to second on a passed ball. Unfortunately Indy next three batters went down in order and Hough took the non-conference win 5-1.
Independence 000 010 0 – 1
Hough 110 300 X – 5
