South Putnam baseball takes WCC loss against Cascade 12-2

Aaron Cole stretches to make an out in South Putnam's 12-2 loss against Cascade. (Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT)

CLAYTON -- After having their second consecutive Monday game pushed back, South Putnam's baseball squad took the first game a conference double header with Cascade on the chin as the Cadets won a 12-2 decision in five innings.

South Putnam head coach Zach Love said that little mistakes early snowballed into a bigger problem.

"We made a couple of mistakes in the field early on that got us down a little bit," Love said. "It was difficult for us to recover."

Brandon Gierke took the mound for the Eagles but was treated roughly by the hosts, as Cascade scored one in the first and bagged five runs in the second inning.

South Putnam pulled one back in the third when Josh Stewart scored on a Tyler Long single.

Jake Carmichael of South Putnam drives in one of the Eagles' two runs against the Cadets (Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT)

Gierke singled to follow but Long was thrown out at third to end the inning.

The Cadets got the run back in the bottom of the inning and pushed three more across in the bottom of the fourth to take a 10-1 lead.

The visitors got their second run after lead-off hitter Joe Waters reached on an error and was driven in on a Jake Carmichael single.

That only delayed the inevitable, as Cascade took advantage of a couple of errors, a walk and a hit by pitch to plate the two runs needed to end the game early and take the first game of the series.

While the weather made the game feel more like a winter ball game, Love said that the home side was quicker to forget about the cold and get their bats hot.

"Both teams had to face the same kind of weather and had the same obstacles to overcome," Love said. "They just overcame it better than we did.

"I thought (Chase) Blackburn pitched a good game and it took us a while to put the ball in play. It was too little, too late and there were too many mistakes."

The two squads will make up Monday's washout on Wednesday and Love said that the squad needed to be ready to play in order to split the series.

"We have to come out focused and ready to play Wednesday," Love said. "We need to let tonight go. Grady (McHugh) is going to be on the mound for us.

"I think we're better than what we played tonight, it's just a matter of showing it."

At Cascade