Cats top Bulldogs

It was a long time coming to coaches, players, and fans as Whitehouse earned its first district win Saturday at Kilgore 7-4 avenging and earlier first round loss to the Bulldogs. After dropping four games by one run each, the Wildcats were looking around the corner to see if there was some leftover "Curse of the Bambino" or something that had prevented those close games from going into the win column.

Matt Durst pitched a complete game for the Cats earning the win as he gutted through 128 pitches, scattering 8 hits and 4 walks while striking out 7 for the night.

The Cats failed to notch a run for the first two innings as they left 4 runners on base but they pushed 5 runs across in the top of the third. Ryan Bell led the inning off with a single and went to third on Seth Cashion's double to left center. Bell scored on a groundout by Durst and then Blake Shockley, running for Cashion, scored on an infield hit by Tyler Spitzmiller. Grant Brandon, who singled before Spitzmiller came home with Spitzmiller on a double by Brady Attaway to deep right center. Attaway then scored on a double by Heath Mayo.

The lead stood as Kilgore picked up a run in the fourth and two more in the fifth but the Cats picked up another run in the four th as Cashion walked and Shockley later scored on sacrifice fly by Kevin House.

The win over Kilgore was even sweeter after a heart breaking loss the Tuesday before at home to Nacogdoches 5-3 in eight innings.

Taylor Peterson pitched a gem in the loss, allowing only three hits to the dis- trict leader while walking three and striking out three. The Cats picked up two runs in the bottom of the first as Mayo was hit by a pitch and then Bell doubled to left center. Cashion then hit a one-hopper right at the second baseman to score Mayo and Durst grounded out to short to plate Bell.

The Cats held the Dragons at bay headed into the sixth but missed on a golden opportunity to score some insurance runs as they could not get a run across after putting runners on second and third with no outs.

The Dragons pushed a run across in the seventh on a Wildcat error with two outs and picked up two runs in the eighth as Peterson tired.

The Wildcats travel to Pine Tree tomorrow night to battle with the Pirates.