BY MICHAEL DAVID

First-year Wood River High School Baseball Coach Dave Slotten had a simple terse statement after his team dropped both games of a doubleheader to the Canyon Ridge Riverhawks on Tuesday:

“We’ve got to get better at playing catch.”

Solid outings by his starting pitchers--senior Noah Roberts in game one and freshman Hunter Thompson in game two--were not enough for the Wolverines to overcome several miscues in the field and cold bats against their Great Basin rivals. Consequently, they ended up in the losing column, losing 12-3 and 11-0.

Roberts gave up single runs to Canyon Ridge in the first and second inning despite only yielding one hit over the first two innings. The Riverhawks capitalized on four early Wolverine errors to take the 2-0 lead into the bottom of the second inning. Wood River bounced right back with two runs, including an RBI single by junior Chance Appell to tie the game 2-2.

Canyon Ridge led off the third with a triple and a base on balls to put runners at the corner with no outs. But when the Riverhawks attempted the double steal, junior catcher Huck Sprong and sophomore second baseman Boone Scherer were up to the task, gunning down both base stealers to wipe the bases clean.

Unfortunately, the flood gates opened on the Wolverines in the fifth inning as Canyon Ridge erupted for seven runs to put Game One out of reach. Wood River would hold the Riverhawks scoreless over the final two innings but the Wolverines were unable to mount any comeback, falling 12-3.

Slotten turned to his freshman Thompson in the second game to cool the hot bats of Canyon Ridge. Thompson limited them to just a single run in the first two innings to keep the game in reach early, only to fall victim to a big inning in the third, fueled by a two fielding blunders by his defense. The Riverhawks tallied four runs to take a 5-0 lead into the fourth frame.

Thompson settled back in, allowing only one run in his next two innings of work. However, similar to game one, the Wolverines were unable to string hits together to pressure the effective pitching and defense of Canyon Ridge, who kept them off the scoreboard entirely in game two. The Riverhawks would have one more scoring burst, plating five runs in the top of the seventh inning, providing the 11-0 final count.

The losses dropped Wood River to 5-13 overall and 4-7 in Great Basin Conference play. Up next for the Wolverines is a doubleheader on Friday, April 19, against the Burley Bobcats in Burley. They will be back home at Founders Field on Tuesday, April 23, for a doubleheader matchup with Mountain Home. The first pitch will be thrown at 3:30 p.m.