WCS baseball starts off with a win

ELGIN — Westminster Christian began its 2011 campaign the same way it finished last season: With a win.
The reigning Class 1A state champions combined timely hitting with solid pitching performances from junior standouts Ryan Perez and Kevin Elder and came away with a 7-1 non-conference victory against Genoa-Kingston on Friday.
Perez (1-0) started and tossed four shutout innings, alternating between his left and right hand every other batter. He struck out five, walked none and allowed one hit before giving way to Elder, who struck out eight and allowed one run on two hits in his three innings of work.
It was a promising start for the Warriors, who in addition to having an enlarged target on their backs after last year’s success also face the challenge of moving up to Class 2A for the first time thanks to an increase in enrollment.
“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, we’ve just got to come out and play our game just like we did last year,” Elder said. “We’re going to always play hard and try to come out with the victory.”
Added Perez: “We’ve got to work on some stuff, but overall we’re solid all around. Our pitching was good and our defense was good today. I personally seemed to have a lot more pop with my right hand, but both hands felt pretty good.”
It was a nip-and-tuck affair early as both teams managed only one base runner the first time through the batting order. Westminster’s offense finally came alive with two outs in the bottom of the third when Perez and Dylan Scully reached on back-to-back singles and came around to score on Elder’s two-run double.
The Warriors broke the game open in the fourth with five runs off Cogs starter Austin Lancaste. Will Woodhouse had an RBI sacrifice fly, Andrew Mason added an RBI single, Perez drove in a run with a groundout to third and Scully delivered a two-run single as Westminster batted around during the inning while pushing its lead to 7-0.
“I figured the second time through the lineup we would hit the ball,” Westminster coach Jeff Moeller said. “The first time around everyone was nervous and anxious, you know how that is. The second time around guys started seeing the ball real well.”
G-K’s only run came in the top of the sixth when Matt Rasmussen led off with a triple to straightaway center and scored two batters later on Matt Comparone’s RBI groundout.
It was the first taste of defeat for the Cogs (2-1), who were playing for the third day in a row. First-year G-K coach Josh Latimer thought his team was a little rattled after Westminster took the lead, and some shaky defense by the Cogs helped lead to the five-run fourth for the Warriors.
“When you’re playing a good team like the defending Class 1A state champions, if you give them an opportunity to put up a run it does a little bit to you mentally,” Latimer said. “It affected our kids. That’s something we’re going to continue to work on and continue to get better at, but it hurt us today.”
Lancaste (0-1) took the loss after allowing seven runs on eight hits while walking three and striking out one before being lifted with no outs in the fifth.
Scully and junior transfer Tyler Greene both went 2-for-3 to lead Westminster at the plate.

-Courier News Erik Jacobson