Wildcats run-rule way to district semifinals; Roades tosses no-hitter

Thursday was a winning day for the No. 3 seeded Whiteoak Wildcats baseball program as they won their Division VII SE District quarterfinal game against the No. 14 seeded Western Latham Indians by a 10-0 score, and to go with that, senior Zander Roades threw a no-hitter. 

Roades in his no-hitter — which was caught by Christian Hite  — pitched five innings, allowing no runs or hits, while having one walk with 11 strikeouts. 

Roades struck out the side in the second, third and fourth innings and had two strikeouts, including the final two outs of the game in the top of the fifth. He faced 16 batters, with the only four-batter inning being the first inning where he walked the second batter of the game. 

Of the 11 strikeouts by Roades, eight were swinging third strikes, and three were called third strikes. 

Offensively for Whiteoak, they scored one run in the bottom of the first inning with Jonah Michael crossing home plate on a sacrifice fly by Roades for the 1-0 lead. 

The second inning saw Whiteoak (11-8) score five runs off four hits and two walks as Izayah Clift, Michael, Hite, Wyatt Ruark and Abraham Flader all scored runs. Hits in the inning were off the bats of Roades, Clift, Michael and Flder, with the walks forced by Hite and Ruark. 

WHS added two runs in the bottom of the third for a 8-0 lead as Jacen Applegate and Hite scored runs. Applegate led off the inning with a double, while Hite also hit a double. 

The home team Wildcats scored two runs in the bottom of the fourth for a 10-run lead as Michael and Applegate crossed home plate. Michael led off the inning with a double and scored a run on a sacrifice fly by Jacob Kiley. Applegate walked, and then stole second base. He scored a run off a double by Hite. 

Michael and Hite each finished with two hits for Whiteoak, as Michael went 2-for-2 with three runs, two steals and one RBI. Hite went 2-for-2 with a double, one walk, three steals and two RBI. 

Clift ended the day at 1-for-3 with a run, steal and RBI. Roades went 1-for-2 with a double, steal, SAC and one RBI. 

Applegate ended the game at 1-for-2 with two runs, a double, and one steal. Ruark went 1-for-2 with one run, one walk and one steal. Flader finished the game at 1-for-2 with a run and two steals. The WIldcats also had a SAC and RBI by Kiley.

Next for Whiteoak (11-8) is a Division VII SE District Semifinal game on Friday, May 30 against No. 11 Corning Miller (10-9) at 4:30 p.m. at Logan High School with a 4:30 p.m. start. Corning Miller defeated No. 6 seeded Portsmouth Notre Dame by a 5-3 score in the quarterfinal round. 

BOX SCORE
WLHS    000 00x x — 0 0 1
WHS    152 1xx x — 10 9 0