Tim Lichty is on one of those offensive tears hitters covet.
For the second straight game, the Western Nevada College catcher belted a grand slam as part of a two-homer performance, as the Wildcats routed Utah State University Eastern, 10-0, in the first game of a Scenic West Athletic Conference baseball doubleheader on Thursday in Price, Utah.
Lichty also homered in a 16-8 second-game victory, giving him five long balls during a three-game stretch.
More importantly, the doubleheader sweep established WNC as the undisputed leaders of the SWAC at 12-2.
Lichty scored four times and drove home six runs for the second consecutive game in the opener.
The offensive production by Lichty was more than enough for Matt Young to dispatch the Golden Eagles in five innings. Young tossed his staff-leading fourth straight complete game and raised his season record to 4-3 with the shutout.
Bradley Lewis’ RBI single highlighted the Wildcats’ two-run first and Lewis added a run-scoring double to left in the second. Lichty and D.J. Peters chipped in an RBI single and sacrifice fly, respectively, as the Wildcats built a 5-0 lead for Young.
Lichty’s solo shot off Jordan Raab in the fourth inning extended WNC’s lead to 6-0.
Game 2 began like the opener, with WNC plating two runs in the first frame. Peters knocked in David Modler with a single to right field and Chandler Barkdull stole home when the Golden Eagles attempted to throw out Peters at second base on a walk to Lichty.
WNC played small and long ball in the fourth inning to score five runs. Barkdull executed a safety squeeze bunt to score Sam Salyers, then Peters drove a Bennett Bradford offering over the center field fence for a two-run homer. Lichty made it back-to-back homers with a solo shot, increasing WNC’s lead to 7-2. It was Lichty’s third homer of the day and fifth in three games. Salyers, Modler and Casey Cornwell contributed singles during the five-hit rally.
The Wildcats capitalized on a pair of errors to score five more runs in the fifth. Modler stroked a RBI double during the rally, and Lichty’s liner to right field cleared the bases for a 12-2 Wildcat lead. Lichty was thrown out at the plate on the relay home for the third out.
Daniel Nist followed an infield single by Brogan Secrist with a mammoth homer to left, pushing WNC further ahead at 14-6. It was the Wildcats’ fifth homer of the afternoon. An unearned run and a RBI base hit by Riley Hennings pushed WNC’s lead to 16-6.
Jordan Dreibelbis earned his fourth victory in five decisions. Kyle Thompson closed out the seven-inning win by retiring four out of the five batters he faced.
The Wildcats’ 16-hit attack featured six players with two hits. Modler, Barkdull, Peters, Lichty, Salyers and Justin Mannens had two knocks. HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL
Douglas edges MANOUGUE in 8
MINDEN — Haydn Brown belted a leadoff triple and then scored on Isaiah Schat’s single in the eighth inning as Douglas pulled out an important 3-2 Northern Division I victory against Bishop Manogue.
Douglas (2-3 league, 3-7 overall) scored twice in the sixth inning to erase a 1-0 deficit, only to see Manogue (2-3, 2-5) stage a two-out rally in the seventh to send the game to extra innings.
Brown tripled into the left-center field gap to open the home half of the eighth, then after back-to-back intentional walks to load the bases, Schat dropped a single into short center field to drive home the winning run.
Brown also singled and scored the tying run on Logan Fencl’s triple to center field in the sixth inning. Fencl scored an unearned run on a third-strike error to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead.
Earlier, Douglas junior Hunter Simpson and Manogue sophomore Jonas Whitten locked up in a pitching duel that was scoreless until the Miners pushed across one run in the fifth inning. Whitten allowed six hits to go with 12 strikeouts and one walk over 5.2 innings.
Simpson worked 6.2 innings, allowed two runs on eight hits and three walks with six strikeouts.
Tanner Valenzuela earned credit for the win after he came on to pitch the eighth and retired the side on a strikeout with the potential go-ahead run on third base.
Manogue left 11 runners stranded, eight of whom were in scoring position. The Tigers also turned a pair of double plays and catcher Spencer Trivitt threw out three runners on the base paths.
The two teams are battling for a top-eight finish in the conference and playoff berth coming into the finale of their two-game series Saturday (11 a.m.) in Reno.
JV BASEBALL
LANCERS TIP CHS
RENO — McQueen scored twice in the last of the seventh to beat Carson, 11-10, Thursday afternoon.
Ethan Good, Dan Morrison, Colby Zemp, Terin Keller and Harry Meyer all had two hits in a losing effort.
