The Wildcats started the baseball season with a three-game series at home against the Whitman Blues. 

The series started with a doubleheader where the Wildcats fell short in both games. The home opener saw a cool 47-degree breeze fill the seats of the Jim Wright Stadium. 

The Blues started the scoring within the first inning when Kevin Nakamura was able to bring in a runner home. The Blues would keep the lead for the rest of the game. 

The Wildcats were not able to stop the Blues as they got another runner home in the third inning adding to their lead. 

The floodgates really opened in the fifth when Whitman was able to score three runs on the Wildcats. 

The Wildcat’s starting pitcher, senior Cason Cunningham, had trouble getting a rhythm as many of his throws were off target. He was visibly upset as grunts would follow every sloppy thrown ball. 

“This season hasn’t started out the way anyone had hoped or expected it would,” Cunningham said. “I’ve felt like I personally let the team down my last two starts but thankfully it is still early and there is a lot of season to go.”

Cunningham was substituted out by senior Kameron Walker who would be one of the four other pitchers to be on the mound that game. Despite his frustration, Cunningham would tie the Linfield’s record for strikeouts with the six he got in the game.

“I’m just very thankful to have been given the opportunity by our coaches to play at a school with as rich a baseball tradition as Linfield has,” Cunningham said about tying the school’s strikeout record. “As well as how well they have prepared me for games and put me in the best scenarios to succeed.”

The Wildcats wouldn’t score until the bottom of the sixth inning when junior Levi-Horner Villa was able to bring in fellow junior Brian Cromwell. At this point, the Blues had put up 10 points to Linfield’s 1. The Wildcats never threatened Whitman’s lead. 

Despite the heroics and scores by Villa, junior Aydan Allen, junior Kurt Potter, and senior Cameron Fox the Wildcats would lose 12 – 6. 

“[We] just need to minimize giving up free bases and outs,” Allen said, “and capitalize offensively in situations with runners on base.” 

The game would go down in history as the first time Linfield lost to Whitman since 2002. 

The Wildcats turned it around for the third game of the series on Sunday.

Freshman pitcher, Colton Meyer, pitched a solid six innings before being subbed out by Walker. He pitched one inning before Brendan O’Brien took his place for another inning. In the last inning of the game, Brennan Meriwether came in as the closer.

The ‘Cats offensive game was off the charts with Fox, Cromwell and Ben Wagner leading the team in RBIs.

Linfield’s defense only allowed five hits and one run, whereas Whitman allowed twelve hits and twelve runs from the Wildcats.

Whitman’s Jack Carper got a fastball to the lips from one of O’Brien’s pitches during the eighth inning. Carper was escorted off the field in an ambulance and after a 30-minute delay, the game continued.

The final score was 12-1. The Wildcats won only one game of the series against Whitman.

Next, the ‘Cats travel to play Pacific at noon, Saturday and Sunday.