Offense more than does its part as pitching-rich Basic tops Liberty

Strong pitching has been a constant of late for Basic’s baseball team.

And while that trend continued on Monday, the Wolves also showed plenty of offense.

Basic scored in each of the first four innings and rolled to a 9-1 home win over second-ranked Liberty to remain undefeated in the Southeast League.

“I’m real happy with the offense today,” Basic coach Scott Baker said. “I didn’t think we were going to throw up nine runs. But it was just some gigantic two-strike hits, two-out hits again. The offensive effort was great all around.”

The sixth-ranked Wolves (20-6, 5-0 Southeast) jumped on UNLV-bound starter Dan Skelly for three runs in the top of the first thanks to consecutive singles from Logan Nelson, Ryne Nelson, Mikey York and Josh McLean.

York’s single through the left side brought in the first run, and McLean followed with a chopper over third base to score two more.

But Basic wasn’t done. The Wolves got two more in the second on an RBI double by Skyler Mahoney and a sacrifice fly by Green, then pulled away with three more runs in the third.

It was the bottom of the order that came through in the third, with No. 9 hitter Jaden Ream lining an RBI single to left to make it 6-0. The Wolves added a run on an error and another on a wild pitch in the inning.

Tanner Roundy had an RBI single in the fourth to make it 9-1.

“Ream came through with a gigantic hit,” Baker said. “Roundy came through with an RBI knock. I know Roundy’s was with two strikes. (Brandon) Smith had a hit. It was up and down the lineup.”

Eight of Basic’s nine starters had a hit led by York, who was 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI. He also continued Basic’s streak of stellar pitching. York gave up one run on six hits in five innings. He struck out three and walked three. The Wolves now have allowed 25 runs in their last 14 games.

Liberty (19-4, 3-2) entered play Monday averaging 10.1 runs.

“They’ve been scoring double-digits pretty much the whole year,” Baker said. “And they beat us opening day and dropped 10 on us. With Mikey going, I figured it was gong to be more of a pitcher’s duel, but I couldn’t be more pleased with only giving up one run with that offense.”

Contact prep sports editor Damon Seiters at dseiters@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4587. Follow him on Twitter: @DamonSeiters.