Baseball Wampus Cats slam Greenbrier

By Hunter Brooks and Courtney Howard
UCA sportswriting

The Conway Wampus Cats beat the Greenbrier Panthers, 19-7, in a topsy-turvy non-conference game Monday night at Wampus Cat Field in Conway.

The game ended after the fifth inning because of the Arkansas Activities Association's mercy rule — a team being up by 10 runs after five innings. Shortstop Aaron Boucher hit a three-run home run, giving Conway an 11-run lead, thus ending the game.

The Wampus Cats scored 19 consecutive runs to end the game after a seven-run first inning by the Panthers. Conway scored in every inning, including a seven-run first, helped by pitching mistakes, and a six-run fourth.

“You think you’ve seen everything, then stuff like this happens,” Conway coach Noel Boucher said. “I’ve never coached a game where we were down seven runs, only to win by 12. I told the kids we have the rest of the game to make up the deficit. They stayed poised and then we were tied after the bottom half. I was very happy with our hitting today. Hopefully it can continue against Central.”

The Wampus Cats scored 19 runs on 14 hits. Aaron Boucher, J.T. Blackwell, and Tyler Langley all hit home runs. Right fielder Wesley Hoover went 2-for-3, including a double and a triple, and recorded three RBIs. Ryan Lazo, Ricky Puloma, Colin Fluesmeier and Kipley Powell each had hits that helped the Wampus Cats get six runs in the fourth.

“We just got outplayed,” Greenbrier coach Terry May said. “We got a break in the first inning with all the walks and batters hit, but only five hits isn’t going to cut it against a team like Conway. They were just better than us today.”

The Panthers, who play in the 5A-West conference, scored seven runs on five hits but committed four errors. Right fielder Colt Harmon went 2-for-3 with an RBI. Greenbrier used four different pitchers.

The Wampus Cats improved to 13-6 overall on the year. Conway will continue conference play Thursday against 7A-Central foe Little Rock Central. First pitch is set for 4 p.m.