After a thrilling stretch of wins, Cuba High School’s baseball team experienced some heartache this past week. The Wildcats fell in an 11 inning game to Belle by one run, lost decisively to Sullivan before dropping another one run game to Crosspoint Christian Sr. in Pacific. 

The Wildcats led in both games they lost by one run, and will look to show mental fortitude to bounce back in the home stretch of the season. 

Cuba is now 8-8 on the year with eight games left in the regular season before the Class 3 District 8 Tournament begins on May 14 in Belle. 

The Wildcats are scheduled to play Bourbon on April 27, which will be detailed in next week’s edition if the weather cooperates. 

Cuba will play in the Salem Tournament, beginning with a pair of games on April 30 against Mt. Grove and Pacific. The Wildcats will play Mt. Grove at 11:30 a.m. and will take on Pacific at 4:30 p.m. The Wildcats will return to Salem on May 2 to play in the final day of the tournament, but their opponent and start time are to be determined based on the results of their first two games. 

The black and gold will then play in New Haven on May 4 before hosting Salem on May 5 for Senior Night, where Cuba’s seniors and their families will be recognized before the first pitch being thrown. 

Wildcats fall to Belle in extra innings heartbreaker 

The Wildcats welcomed in its Gasconade Valley Conference (GVC) foe, the Belle Tigers, to Paul Bryan Field. Little did fans in attendance know that they would be watching four innings of bonus baseball and over three hours of action. 

Cuba led 5-4 heading into the seventh and final inning. Wildcat ace Braden Gipson was on the mound, looking for a complete game. After complete domination in his first four starts of the season, Gipson showed that he was human. With the bases loaded, Gipson walked Belle freshman Lathan Miller to tie the game at five. 

The Wildcats had chances in the bottom of the seventh, eighth, ninth and ten innings to come away with a walk-off win, but Tiger sophomore relief pitcher Rhyder Butler repeatedly stifled the Wildcats, putting zeros on the board in five straight frames. 

Cuba countered by bringing in senior Adam Doyle in relief of Gipson to pitch in extra innings. Doyle hurled three shutout innings before allowing Belle to score one in the top of the 11th on a wild pitch. Fellow senior Cameron Carnal came on to get the final two outs in the 11th in just seven efficient pitches, striking out one Tiger. 

The Wildcats offense continued to sputter in the bottom of the 11th, and Belle walked away with a 6-5 victory. 

Gipson allowed five runs on the day, but only two of those were earned, as three costly Wildcat errors accounted for a trio of Belle’s runs. Gipson had previously only given up one earned run coming into the game, but still posts an immaculate 0.61 earned run average with 53 strikeouts in 34 innings following the loss to Belle. 

The Wildcats collected 10 hits throughout the contest. Gipson singled three times and scored twice to lead Cuba. Wyatt McMillian pulled the black and gold on the board with a run-scoring double in the first inning and finished with two hits and three runs batted in. 

Luke Whittaker and Logan McDonald singled, Layten Eikermann singled and scored a run, Doyle singled and drove in a run and Carter Medows walked, singled, drove in a run and scored a run to round out the Wildcat’s offensive production. Medows also threw out a Belle runner trying to steal a base from his catcher’s position. 

After running freely and stealing 12 bases against Hermann, the Wildcats were blanked on the base paths, as they were caught stealing in their only attempt to swipe a base by catcher Garrett Gehlert. 

Belle senior Hank Stratman started on the mound for the Tigers, striking out 11 Wildcats in six innings. Startman also collected two base hits and scored three times at the plate. Senior right fielder Chase Trainor led the Tigers with three base hits in the win.   

Second inning woes doom Cuba in loss to Sullivan on April 21 

A six-run second inning from the Sullivan Eagles on their senior night proved to be detrimental to Cuba, who fell 9-1 at Sullivan High School. 

The Wildcats appeared to be physically and mentally fatigued after their marathon matchup against Belle the day before. 

Carnal started on the mound for the black and gold and was one out away from getting out of a second inning jam with the Wildcats down 3-0. But a costly error kept the inning alive and Sullivan was able to add five more runs in the frame and balloon its 8-0 lead.

Carnal struck out seven Eagles in four innings, giving up just one earned run out of the eight runs scored against him. McDonald came on in relief and pitched the final two frames, allowing one earned run. 

Cuba’s offense was held to three hits by a combination of four Sullivan pitchers. Doyle had two of the three hits, including a laser double deep into left field that drove in Carter Medows for the Cat’s lone run. Freshman Wyatt Littrell came on in the fifth inning along with other whole sale substitutions from Bouse and singled for Cuba’s only other hit of the day. Carnal walked and collected the Wildcat’s lone stolen base of the game. 

Sullivan senior first baseman Mitch Garner doubled, tripled, drove in four runs and scored once to lead the Eagles to the win. 

Cuba’s junior varsity team earned a 9-8 victory in five innings over the Eagles JV squad following the varsity game.

The Wildcat’s freshman team defeated Sullivan 11-9 the next day at Paul Bryan Field. 

Wildcats squander late lead, fall to Crosspoint Christian Sr.

The Wildcats appeared to be in control of the road contest in Pacific against the Crosspoint Christian Cougars until late in the game. Cuba led 3-1 in the third inning after Gipson drove in a run on a groundout and Doyle laced a two-run double. 

The Cougars responded with one run in the bottom of the third to make it 3-2, where the score remained until the bottom of the sixth. 

After Cuba was scoreless for three innings, Crosspoint Christian rallied for two runs off Doyle, who was on in relief of starter Jaspar Silva and held on to defeat the Wildcats, 4-3. 

Carter Medows led Cuba with two hits, a run scored and a stolen base. McMillian singled, stole a base and scored, Carnal singled, and Eikermann walked, stole a base and scored to round out the Wildcat’s offensive production. Silva hurled four innings in 75 pitches, striking out three Cougars.

Crosspoint Christian Sr. was led by third baseman Payton Lauth, who collected a pair of hits, including a run-scoring double in the decisive sixth inning. 

It was the second one-run loss of the week for Cuba who led in both games, and the Wildcats will look to show mental fortitude and bounce back in the home stretch of the season.