NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
McCoy Colts shortstop Kyle Woolridge admires his throw to complete the double play in the Colts 9-2 win over the Hat High Hawks Thursday night at Jeffries Field.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Advantage McCoy Colts senior baseball team.
The Colts beat the Hat High Hawks 9-2 Thursday night to take the first inner-city matchup since 2019.
Colts head coach Cole Schreiber said he’s proud of his team for starting the game hot and picking up the win to remain undefeated on the season.
“Right from the start, guns a blazing, ready to go and they didn’t let off the pedal all night but it certainly wasn’t easy,” Schreiber said. “Our guys fought, they had some good arms going for them and for us to come out on top and show we can hit what they got is important for us moving forward and gives us a lot of confidence moving forward as well.”
Evan Morrison picked up the win on the mound for McCoy, throwing five innings with seven strikeouts. Kayne Olinski had two innings of relief with two strikeouts.
Schreiber said his team played their best game of the year and attributed that to their offence, defence and pitching.
“We had three or four gold stars for sure defensively, we had an Olinski diving play, Morrison diving play, our shortstop Kyle Woolridge coming over from short catching the ball at second base, everybody chipping in defensively, and Morrison was fantastic on the mound and Olinski was great as well finishing off,” Schreiber said. “Throughout our whole order we had people coming through with big hits and they ran the bases hard and just timely hits as well.”
Woolridge led the Colts offensively as he went 3-for-4 including a triple and scored 3 runs and had the finishing throw for a turned double play. He said it feels awesome to beat an inner-city rival because a bunch of them play together on the Legion team. The shortstop said the Colts can only get stronger after the win.
“I think we just have to come in stronger than that and play as hard as we can,” Woolridge said. “We really want the title here.”
Across the diamond, Kevan Schafer started for the Hawks and threw 4 2/3 innings with eight strikeouts. Koby Eskestrand and Cade Harrison threw a combined 2 1/3 with one strikeout for Eskestrand.
Hawks head coach Lyall Foran pointed at the Hawks being down 5-1 after two innings as what held them back Thursday night. He said he told his team to move past the game and focus on the post-season.
“I told the guys, this game doesn’t mean anything, it’s an opportunity for us to just kind of feel them out and see where we need to improve and where we need to make adjustments,” Foran said.
Trevin Ressler and Eskestrand led the Hawks offensively with two hits each. Ressler had two RBIs in the loss.
Foran said he wants his team to take the understanding of controlling their nerves from this game into the playoffs.
“In games where the nerves might be amping up a little bit, just how to handle that and how to kind of kind of control that,” Foran said. “So in the future when we play these guys, they’re a little bit more calm or a little cooler, more collected and ready to go.”
The Colts(6-0) next action is Monday against Catholic Central in Lethbridge before a rematch with the Hawks (5-1) Tuesday.
