WHS baseball team amasses 10 hits in victory as finish line draws closer
WACO — The home stretch looks very favorable for the Waxahachie Indians in their season-ending push for the playoffs.
The long bus ride didn’t seem to affect the Indians on Tuesday night, as they pounded out 10 hits and got a combined five-hit shutout in an 8-0 victory over the last-place Waco Lions in District 11-6A action.
The win kept the Indians (9-10-1, 6-5) in fourth place in the district, a game ahead of Cedar Hill and Duncanville and a game back of third-place Mansfield High. For tiebreaker purposes, WHS swept Duncanville and was swept by Cedar Hill this season.
Mansfield Lake Ridge and Waco Midway entered Friday tied for first place at 9-2, and those two teams will square off in the final week.
For the Indians on Tuesday, Bryce Marquardt finished 2-for-3 with three RBI and a run scored; Jared Thomas was 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored; and Zach Pearrow was 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored. Nash Nichols added a three-RBI triple and Lucas Ferguson had an RBI double.
Kash Thorne got the start and went the first four innings for the win. The junior righty pounded the strike zone, throwing 30 of his 40 pitches for strikes. Cade Sims followed with two innings and freshman Judd Nash tossed the seventh.
After two scoreless innings, Marquardt singled home two runs to break the ice and spark a five-run third inning. Later, after the Indians loaded the bases, Nichols cleared them with his triple to make it 5-0.
The Tribe ended the scoring in the fourth on a Marquardt RBI groundout, a Pearrow RBI hit and a Ferguson RBI double.
The Indians were scheduled to host the Lions in the home rematch on Friday night at Richards Park.
The district season wraps up against seventh-place DeSoto next week, with the last home game of the regular season on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Richards Park and one more at DeSoto on Friday, April 26.