Highlanders, Vikings split on diamond

The McLennan Highlanders and Grayson Vikings split today's conference-opening doubleheader at Bosque River Ballpark.

Grayson took game one 9-0 with Logan Freeman taking the loss on the mound. Nic Motley went 2-3 at the plate with a double to lead the Highlanders. Chris Roller, Brendan Venter and George Callil hit a single each. 

McLennan bounced back to defeat the Vikings 7-2 in the nightcap with Bailey Horn picking up the win. Roller went 3-5 with an RBI while Venter, Joe Breaux and Mario Vela also recorded an RBI each. Chase Sorter hit a home run and picked up two RBIs. Motley hit a double and picked up an RBI as well.

"Today is kind of a disappointing day. When you split a doubleheader, you are never happy. You are always trying to win both ends of a doubleheader. Today, we just didn't really play very well overall. Offensively, we were poor all day long. Fortunately, we had some guys step up and have some big quality at bats during game two. We left a lot guys on base, we struck out way too much and were not very competitive so it was very disappointing for me in that way," head coach Mitch Thompson said.

"Other than the first two innings of the doubleheader, our pitching was outstanding, I give a lot of credit to Connor Heffron, Bailey Horn and Kyrell Miller. For 14 plus innings, those guys were outstanding. They only gave up three runs in those 14 plus innings so you've got to be pleased with that."

 "It looked like today that we hadn't played in 10 days and I'll take that on me as a coach for setting up the schedule. We intersquaded but we just didn't play very well and we've got to pick it up and get better. We've got to get better offensively at putting balls in play and we've got to get better at competing hard. And, we will. We are are going to be working hard to get ready to go up to Grayson on Saturday to get a couple Ws and hopefully play well. If we play like we are capable, we will win games and if we don't, we will get beat." 

Grayson 9, McLennan 0
Grayson 440 001 0 – 9 7 1
McLennan 000 000 0 – 0 5 2
Tyler Ivey, Taylor Floyd (6) and Seth Mullins. Logan Freeman, Connor Heffron (2) and Josh Breaux. WP: Ivey; LP: Freeman. Leading hitters – Grayson: Westyn Swenson (1-4, 2B), Ryne Randle (2-4, 2 RBI), Seth Mullins (2-4, 2 HR, 5 RBI), Brayden Webb (1-3, 2B) and Brady Manning (1-2, 2B, RBI). McLennan: Nic Motley (2-3, 2B). Record: McLennan 15-4 (0-1).

McLennan 7, Grayson 2
Grayson 000 200 000 – 2 4 2
McLennan 000 015 10x – 7 9 2
Braxton Webb, Slater Foust (6), Jose Vasquez (6), Ligon West (6), Caleb Kiefer (8) and Andrew Miller. Bailey Horn, Kyrell Miller (8) and Nic Motley. WP: Horn; LP: Webb. Leading hitters – Grayson: Andrew Miller (1-4, HR, 2 RBI); McLennan: Chris Roller (3-5, RBI), Joe Breaux (0-2 RBI), Brendan Venter (1-5, RBI), Nic Motley (1-5, 2B, RBI), Chase Sortor (1-4, HR, 2 RBI), Mario Vela (1-2, RBI). Record: McLennan 16-4 (1-1).