The chilly weather that came early in the week seemed to cool down the Wildcats’ offense in their first home games of the season.

Cuba High School’s varsity baseball team dropped their first two home games of the season on March 23 and March 24 against Richland and Potosi, respectively, after scoring four runs in both games combined.

The Wildcats are now 1-3 so far this year after splitting a double header with Waynesville and Salem on March 21 to open the season.

Cuba had a week off before playing another pair of home games at 4:30 p.m. on March 31 and April 2 against Kingston and St. James, respectively. Both games will be detailed in next week’s edition.

The Wildcat’s freshman team is scheduled to play at 4:30 p.m. in Rolla on April 1 while the varsity team has a rest day in between games. Cuba will then host Viburnum and Valley on April 6 and 7 before playing in Steelville on April 9. All games are scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m, with junior varsity games to follow.

A chilly outing March 23 vs. Richland 

The Wildcats welcomed the Richland Bears to town for their home opener at Paul Bryan Field. After playing a season-opening doubleheader two days prior in the sweltering heat, Cuba quickly had to adjust to the cold and windy conditions brought on by mother nature.

Wildcat senior Jaspar Silva got the start on the mound, and gave up one run on a looping single in the first frame. In the bottom half of the inning,  junior Logan McDonald led off with a single. After the next two Wildcats were retired, freshman Layten Eikermann laced a pitch to right field that darted under the Richland right fielder’s glove and allowed McDonald to score all the way from first base. Eikermann advanced to third base on the error, but Cuba wasn’t able to drive him in.

After both teams went scoreless in the second inning, Richland was able to score four runs and knock Silva out of the game in the third inning. The Wildcats added one run in the bottom of the inning on a single from freshman Cooper Meadows that scored his brother, Carter, a fellow freshman, to make it a 5-2 game.

The Bears added a run in the fifth inning and Cuba responded with one in the sixth on a long single from senior Wyatt McMillian to trim the Wildcat’s deficit to three. But that would end up being all of the scoring for either team. Richland relief pitcher Easton Payne pitched 2 ⅔ scoreless innings to close the game out and Cuba’s relievers settled in as Richland walked away with a 6-3 victory. 

Eikermann came on in relief of Silva and pitched three solid innings of one-run ball while striking out two and senior Adam Doyle finished the game with an efficient one-two-three inning. Cuba junior Braden Gipson added a single and scored on McMillians base knock.

Unearned runs costly vs. Potosi

Cuba returned to action the following night to take on the Potosi Trojans. Senior Cameron Carnal moved from his usual spot in center field to the pitcher’s mound, and threw a scoreless first inning. After the Wildcats also went scoreless in the first, Potosi got on the board in the top of the second on a groundout from sophomore David Miller.

Potosi then erupted for four runs in the third inning and two runs in the fourth to take a 7-0 lead. Cuba scored its lone run of the game in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI single from Gipson. The Trojans knocked in another five runs in the fifth inning to cap their three inning stretch with 11 runs. Cuba went scoreless in the bottom of the fifth inning, which ended the game at 12-1 due to the mercy rule.

Carnal pitched 4 ⅔ innings and gave up six earned runs while striking out four batters. Doyle came on to pitch the final ⅓ of the fifth inning.

Eikermann singled and stole a base and McMillian, McDonald and Luke Whittaker all added base hits. Doyle and Gipson each reached base twice on a base hit and a walk. All of Cuba’s hits were singles as Potosi starting pitcher, junior Brady Kincaid, was able to limit the damage and pitch all five innings to earn the victory. Fellow Trojan, freshman Krew Sadler, singled, doubled, tripled and drove in four runs to lead Potosi.