The Klein Oak Sophomores came out swinging Monday night against the Westfield Mustangs, taking home the win 12-2.

 

JP Phillips led off the Oak offensive rally in the first with a walk, followed by a single by Zach Schulze to set up the 2 RBI double by Travis Arthur and a line drive by Cody Emerson to put the Panthers up 3-0 in the top half inning.  Jacob Fowler started on the mound for Oak and the Panther defense went to work behind him.  Fowler gave up only one hit in the first but that Mustang was caught stealing at second with a great throw by catcher Cody Emerson to Travis Arthur and a quick strike out and put out by the Panthers retired the side one, two, three.

 

Oak had another great offensive second which started off with a walk by Will Hoffmans, a single by Steven Butler and an RBI single by JP Phillips.    Zach Schulze cleared the bases with a line drive up the middle that stopped at the wall and put him on third.  Travis Arthur walked and a sacrifice fly by Jacob Folwer scored Schulze.  Cody Emerson scored Arthur with a single and Matt Sloan walked, but 2 were left on as the inning ended, putting Oak up 9-3 going into the bottom of the second.

 

Fowler faced only 5 batters and struck out three to retire the side, but a bad foul tip took Emerson out of the game with an injury before the end of the 2nd.  (Good news, doctors think it is only a bad bruise and he will hopefully miss only one game!)  The Oak bats continued to pound Westfield in the 3rd which started with singles by Tyler Williams and Steven Butler.  JP Phillips single scored Williams and Zach Schulze walked to load the bases.  RBI singles by Fowler and Graham Lange upped Oak's lead to 12 in the 3rd.

 

Nick Bradley took the mound for Oak to start the bottom of the third and with 2 on, a chopper back to the pitcher got the first out at first.  The next batter loaded the bases, but Bradley quickly struck out the next two to keep the Mustangs scoreless going into the 4th.

 

Oak's 1-2-3 inning in the 4th brought the Mustangs up again and they scored one before Bradley struck one out and a great 4-3-5 double (Arthur, Fowler, Schulze) play ended the side for Westfield.  Oak's only hit in the 4th came from a left handed bat by Jacob Fowler that resulted in a double but he was left stranded as Oak tried to close out the game in the bottom of the 4th. 

 

Peter Crews took the mound for Oak and the Mustangs scored one quickly but were shut down with a pop up to second and 2 Mustang runners were caught stealing to end the game.  Good bats Sophomores - Rest that elbow Emerson!