by Malcolm Butler
Chad Yates has a luxury and his name is Kade Luker.
The junior southpaw made it look easy Thursday night, going the distance on the mound to lead Cedar Creek to an 8-0 win over St. Frederick. Luke used 87 pitches — 65 for strikes — and faced only 24 batters in lead the Cougars (12-2) to their eighth straight victory.
“His stuff is electric,” said Cedar Creek head coach Chad Yates. “When we put him out there, we know what we are going to get out of him. He just throws strikes.
“If you are the other team, you have to swing the bats. It’s not like you are going to get him in pitch trouble because he is strike one, strike two. That’s his strength.”
It didn’t take long for the Warriors to see that strength. Luker threw just 15 pitches to strike out the side in the top of the first two set the tone for the rest of the night.
“Fastball. Change up. Mix a breaking ball a couple of times,” said Yates. “It just seems like he gains more and more momentum each time he takes the bump.”
The Cougars didn’t waste any time in giving their ace a little run support.
Luker led off with a walk and moved to second when Connor Yates was hit by a pitch. After a sacrifice bunt by Brett Bell moved both runners, Luker scored the first run of the game on an RBI groundout to second base by Connor Nichols.
“It’s baseball laws. The first team that can score the first run has a high percentage of winning the game,” said Yates. “We felt like we could bunt for a hit right there which we tried. We just didn’t get it far enough down the line.
“But yeah, getting the runners over, and give ourselves a cushion. It just kills the spirit of the other team because they know what they are about to face (in Luker).”
Creek added a pair of runs in the bottom of the third inning on back-to-back RBI singles by Bell to right field and Nichols to left field, scoring Luker and Yates. Creek led 3-0.
With Luker facing the minimum number of batters over the first four innings — a runner reached on a throwing error in the second but was erased by Bell trying to steal second base — the Cougars kept their slim 3-0.
That is until the bottom of the sixth.
The Cougars sent nine men to the plate and added five more runs. Nichols added a two-out, two run single to centerfield to make the score 5-0 to give him four RBI on the night.
“Connor has been hitting the ball hard for us,” said Yates. “They have just been finding gloves. But we have stuck with him in the four hole. We know what he is capable of doing. He had a big two-out hit (in the sixth). We are going to keep giving him confidence.”
The final three runs scored when the bases emptied on a dropped fly ball in centerfield with two outs.
Luker finished the night allowing just two hits (both singles) and one walk.
