Walleye’s season comes to an end
By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor
After taking seventh place at last year’s State American Legion Baseball Tournament, Pat Spacher, head coach of the Watford City Walleye baseball team, was hoping the team could make a return trip this season.
But the Walleye’s hopes of making a run for a berth at the State Tournament were quickly dashed on Tuesday, July 19, when Watford City was defeated by Mandan, 7-3, in first round action of the Class A West Region Tournament.
“We played one of our better defensive games of the year,” stated
Spacher. “But we couldn’t get the big hits when we needed to.”
While the Walleye out-hit Mandan, 8-7, Watford City just couldn’t string together their hits to get their base runners across the plate.
Mandan led Watford City, 1-0, after the first inning with the Walleye tying the game, 1-1, after three innings of play. But a three-run third inning would put Mandan on top for good. While Watford City would score one more run in the fifth and seventh innings, Mandan would cap off their scoring with three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to seal the win.
Brett Skarda and Tyler Krabbenhoft paced the Walleye at the plate going two for two with one RBI each, while Nick Wright was two for three with one RBI.
Also hitting singles for Watford was Jackson Voll and Heath Chaffin.
Skarda took the loss on the mound for the Walleye as he gave up four runs, while striking out seven and walking four Mandan batters in 4⅓ innings of pitching.
While the Walleye ended their season with a 4-25 record, Spacher believes that the future looks good.
“We lose three seniors off of this team,” stated Spacher. “But we have eight kids moving up from a successful Babe Ruth program. We should continue to get better over the next few years.”
R H E
Watford City 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 3 8 1
Mandan 1 0 0 3 0 3 x 7 7 2