MCKENZIE, Tenn. – The Bethel Wildcats and the Shawnee State Bears continued their three-game MSC opening series Saturday at Wildcat Park.
The Cats took game one 6-2 Friday night.
SSU's Eric Oakes was the story line of game one Saturday. The right-hander pitched a no-hitter for the Bears. He used 102 pitches to shut down the Wildcats. The Bears scored on a Bethel error in the sixth to win 1-0. Marco Santa was the hard luck loser for the Cats. Santa limited the Bears to just four hits.
The Cats took the lead in the second game in the third when Kendrick Osborne was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. Osborne advanced to third on a single by Ivan Vega and scored later on a wild pitch.
The Cats took a 2-0 lead when Jose Olmeda hit his first home run of the season leading off the fourth.
The Bears fought back to take a 4-2 lead with four runs in the fifth.
The Wildcats rallied in the eighth when Bryan Catala singled and was brought home on a double by Aidan Morris. One out later the Wildcats took a 6-4 lead when Adriel Vega cleared the bases with a three run double. Vega scored on a Noah Foster RBI ground out. Osborne scored later on a Bear error to give Bethel an 8-4 lead.
SSU scored a run in the ninth but the Wildcats held on for the 8-5 victory.
The teams combined for nine errors with Bethel having five in the game.
The Bears outhit the Wildcats 9-7.
Alexis Rodriguez picked up the Wildcat victory.
Bethel took the series and moved to 4-11 overall and 2-1 in the MSC. SSU dropped to 2-12 and 1-2.
The Wildcats return to action Tuesday hosting Oakland City at 1 p.m.
Watch:
https://bethelathletics.com/watch
Live stats:
https://bethelathletics.com/sports/bsb/2022-23/boxscores/20230224_cxcq.xml
