Wildcats Suffer First Home Loss of the Season Against the Cougars

The Westchester Country Day School Wildcats (8–5, 4–2) hosted the High Point Christian Cougars on Tuesday. The Wildcats turned to sophomore Ryan Engle for strong pitching in a tough conference battle, Engle once again delivered a solid performance, pitching 3 ⅔ innings, only giving up two runs on one hit and three walks. Engle also tossed eight strikeouts, however Engle took the loss.

The Wildcats got on the board in the fourth inning, when sophomore Cameron Daniel hit a line drive into deep right, bringing in Senior Tony Lopez for the only Wildcat score of the night. Senior Carson Daniel relieved Engle in the fourth and got the final out, but struggled in the fifth allowing five runs on four hits and only securing one out. Daniel was replaced in the fifth by Senior Tate Vogler, who performed solidly and allowed Westchester to stay alive and hope for their offense to get going towards the end. Vogler pitched 1 ⅔ innings, allowing no runs and striking out three Cougar batters.

The Wildcat offense never got going and ultimately ended up losing their first game at home and second in the conference. One bright spot for the Wildcats was eighth grader Ashton Pittman having three hits. Pittman said following the game, “We just have to come back at them and hope we play better.” The Wildcats will have a rematch with High Point Christian on Friday and as Vogler said “We need to forget, holding on to tonight won’t do anything. Sometimes holding on to it can light a fire, but really we need to forget it.” The Wildcats will need to adopt that mindset before Friday and look to return to their dominant offensive ways.