The Wakefield Trojans senior legion baseball team competed in the Chuck Ellis Tournament on Saturday and Sunday, June 1 and 2 in Wakefield, though Wakefield played a game at home versus Ponca on Wednesday due to injuries on the visiting team which they won 5-3..
In their most recent contest, the Trojans came to play against the O’Neill Irish in a game dominated by Wakefield’s red-hot bats.
Cade Johnson got the spark lit underneath the Trojans in the first inning after getting on base and getting around to score to make it 1-0 in favor of the Trojans.
In the second inning, however, is when Wakefield truly woke up. A leadoff single by Cael Johnson followed by two errors in a row by the Irish helped catapult the Wakefield squad to a seven-run inning where all nine batters got up to the plate at least one time.
Now up 8-0, the Trojans had control of the game and kept their foot on the gas to ensure the victory.
While the Irish fought hard, the Trojans stood tall on defense, only allowing one to hit the entire remainder of the game.
After Wakefield was able to plate two more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, the squad held O’Neill scoreless in the top of the fifth to secure a win by mercy rule over the Irish.
Prior to their win against the Irish, the Trojans had a slightly tougher contest against the defending Class C Legion Junior and Senior State Champions, Malcolm.
Wakefield got out to a solid start in the first inning, retiring three of the first four batters to hold Malcolm scoreless out of the gate, but the bats of Wakefield just couldn’t keep up with the defending State Champions.
Despite Wakefield’s best efforts and solid work defensively, Malcolm finished the game with 18 hits for nine runs. While Wakefield had multiple baserunners throughout the game, the squad only conjured one hit, and weren’t able to get anyone home.
When the game was over, Malcolm had emerged victorious by a final score of 9-0. Despite the tough loss, Wakefield put up the best fight Malcolm has seen so far this year, with the Trojans being their lowest margin of victory out of their first few games.
Wakefield went 2-1 at the tournament beating Ponca earlier in the week and easily taking care of O’Neill thanks to Wakefields ace Jesse Lundahl, as well as a strong appearance by Timothy Kaufman coming in relief when Lundahl hit his pitch count.
With the Battle Creek game canceled due to field conditions Post 81’s next game will be Wednesday night as they host Pierce ahead of this weekend’s Max Greve Wood Bat Tournament. In the tournament Post 81 will face Bruning-Davenport-Shlickley on Friday at 4:00 p.m., and then Pender at 8:00 p.m. both games in Wakefield. Saturday the boys take on Lennox at 6:00 p.m. and how they fair in those games will determine if they play Sunday at home at 7:00 p.m. for the championship.