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Wildcats take field at last, defeat team that's in first

By OWH, 03/22/19, 8:15AM CDT

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Millard West coach Steve Frey was just happy to get a game in Thursday night.

The fact that his second-ranked Wildcats started the season with a 5-4, nine-inning victory over top-ranked Omaha Creighton Prep made it even better.

“This is our first day outside,” Frey said. “We made some mistakes but that’s to be expected when you’ve been practicing inside the past few weeks.”

The weather has left the Millard West diamond unplayable, so the Wildcats’ season started Thursday, one week behind schedule. The game against the Junior Jays was moved from Millard West to Prep’s artificial-turf field.

“It’s early so you’re going to see a lot of little mistakes,” Prep coach Pat Mooney said. “And we had some baserunning errors that cost us.”

The Junior Jays went ahead in the second inning when an infield throwing error brought in two runs. The Wildcats erased that deficit with a four-run fourth, highlighted by RBIs from Trey Wilbeck and Corbin Hawkins.

Prep tied it in the fifth on a two-run single by Nate Witkowski. Hawkins came on to pitch and escaped further damage by stranding runners at second and third.

The score remained 4-4 until the top of the ninth, when a leadoff single by Eric Standish eventually led to a run. The Wildcats loaded the bases and the go-ahead run came home on a two-out balk.

“You don’t see that too often,” Frey said. “But by that point, we were happy to score just about any way we could.”

Prep threatened in the bottom of the ninth, when cleanup batter Luke Krzemien led off by lining a shot deep into the left-center field alley. But center fielder Garrett Kennedy made a diving grab to keep the tying run off the bases.

Hawkins then retired the final two batters to secure the victory. The sophomore pitched 4 1⁄3 innings of scoreless relief, allowing one single.

“Corbin was throwing all of his pitches for strikes,” Frey said. “He did a tremendous job for his first game.”

Hawkins, who struck out five and walked one, agreed with his coach that just playing a game was a positive.

“It’s good to get out,” he said. “My arm was loose and I felt really good out there.”

Frey said the Wildcats hope to play a game on their home field by the middle of next week.

“The weather has made things pretty crazy,” he said. “Hopefully it stays nice and we can get some games in at home.”

Millard West (1-0)................000 400 001—5 3 3

At Creighton Prep (2-2)........020 020 000—4 8 3

W: Hawkins. L: Keating. 2B: CP, Sall, Schroeder.