The West Ranch Wildcats’ baseball team quickly turned the page on its first loss of the season, winning in dominant fashion on Wednesday at home.
Leading 3-1 heading into the bottom of the fourth inning Monday against the Paraclete Spirits, the Wildcats opened the game up with five runs in the frame. They followed that up with seven in the fifth inning en route to a 15-1 win.
“It’s a huge win,” said West Ranch High School (4-1) senior Landon Hu. “Like, we obviously are not proud of that last game, and it was great to come back and have a great team win. Tons of people participated really different ways, and it was just great.”
West Ranch suffered its first loss of the season Monday in a 14-12 setback at Quartz Hill having given up 10 runs in the fifth inning.
Hu had the biggest at-bat of the day on Wednesday, launching a two-run home run the opposite way over the left-field fence. That came after he thought he had a home run in his second at-bat, but it was ruled foul.
“It was super unfortunate,” Hu said of the ruled-foul home run, “but I didn’t really see it go. But I just stuck with my approach and kept doing what I’ve been doing all year, and I got lucky with that one.”
The Wildcats generated most of their offense early by staying patient and drawing walks. That trend continued as the game went, but with some more timely hitting to drive those runners home.
“Scoring first for us was huge,” Lindgreen said. “Like, I think it really allowed us to relax there a little bit. So, we’re able to get those early runs and have three early, and with Hunter (Manning) on the mound and we have a lead, we feel like we can really dictate the pace at that point. And we were able to do that.”
A senior, Manning cruised through three perfect innings before giving up the first Paraclete (3-2) hit in the top of the fourth. He then came out after a long wait in the bottom of the inning, finishing with four strikeouts and two hits and one run allowed.
Orlando Gutierrez and Aaden LaRoe combined to shut out the Spirits the rest of the way.
Senior Ty Diaz had two hits, including a double, leading off for the Wildcats, and scored twice. Junior Caydin Wilson had two hits with three RBIs and two runs scored.
Senior Ryan Oh had a triple and drove in three runs.
The offensive outburst combined with clean pitching and defense had Lindgreen praising his team after the win.
“I thought, overall, everybody just kind of did the things that they need to be able to do that we expect. And it showed,” he said.
After a couple of years of finishing second in the Foothill League, and with multiple starters returning from last year’s team, the Wildcats are thinking that this could be the year the league title comes to West Ranch.
“I think we got a great group of guys that we really can put together this year,” Hu said. “If we play to our full potential, it’s gonna be a great year.”
Lindgreen said, “It’s on us to change that story.”
“We have to fight our way through it, because we know our league is going to be really good, but I think that’s where we’re driven to be,” Lindgreen said. “We’re driven to change that story.”
West Ranch has a week off before traveling to play Harvard-Westlake on Wednesday. Foothill League play begins the week after, with the Wildcats playing a two-game set against Castaic High School on Wednesday, March 12, and Friday, March 14, to kick off the league campaign.
