Western Wayne suffered a major power outage Monday afternoon in Lackawanna League diamond action.

Due to weather-induced schedule-juggling, the Wildcats hosted Dunmore in a Division Two baseball clash while the Lady ‘Cats traveled to the Electric City for their varsity softball game.

Regardless of the location, the outcome was the same: neither local team could muster any offense...a fact that led directly to a pair of losses. The boys managed just two basehits in an 8-0 shutout and the girls scratched out only one in a 5-4 defeat.

“I’m a little disappointed,” Wildcat Coach Jason Kromko told TWI Sports. “This is a tough week for us. We have three games in five days and this isn’t exactly the way I was hoping to start it off. We just couldn’t hit the ball. That’s pretty much all there is to it.”

With the loss, Western Wayne fell to 3-9 in Division Two action this spring. The Wildcats host Lakeland this afternoon in Varden before closing out the regular season with consecutive road games at Holy Cross and Mid Valley.

The Lady ‘Cats came tantalizingly close to their first league win of the year, but threw it away on an error in the bottom of the seventh. Coach Bob Bunting’s girls are now 0-12 in the division and 1-15 overall.

Wildcats Whacked
On Monday afternoon in Varden, Lucas McHale was Public Enemy #1 as far as Western Wayne baseball fans were concerned.

Dunmore’s senior ace dominated the Wildcats from start-to-finish. McHale used a baffling array of breaking pitches to completely shut down the home team’s offense. Lucas turned in a dazzling complete game effort. He allowed just two hits while walking two and fanning six.

“The kid’s a junkballer and he kept us off-balance all game long,” said Coach Kromko. “I have to give him credit: we couldn’t do anything against him.”

Mitch Vitovsky and Cody Moyle delivered Western Wayne’s only safeties. Vitovsky continued his hot hitting with a double and Moyle lashed a single.

Greg Lukasik provided the big blow for the visitors. Dunmore’s clean-up man crushed a two-run triple to highlight a three RBI performance. Mike Stremski and Shane Hennigan collected three hit apiece in leading the Bucks to their fifth straight Division Two victory.

Austin Krempasky was Western Wayne’s starter and eventual loser. The Wildcat sophomore survived into the third, but then yielded to reliever Anthony Matacchiera, who pitched the rest of the way.

Krempasky surrendered five runs on six hits. Matacchiera worked five strong frames, yielding just one earned run while striking out eight.

Lady ‘Cat Heartbreak
Despite committing five errors, collecting just one basehit and spotting Dunmore three runs, the Lady ‘Cats nearly won their first league game of the season Monday.

Western Wayne pushed across two runs in the sixth and two in the seventh to take a 4-3 lead. The local girls took advantage of four Dunmore miscues to forge their tenuous lead. However, the Lady Bucks had one last, game-winning rally left in them.

Megan Gershey turned in a stellar outing and was deserving of a better fate. The hard-throwing senior worked seven innings and scattered eight hits. Megan issued just one free pass along the way and struck out eight.

Gershey also delivered Western Wayne’s lone safety of the day, a seventh inning single that broke up Janel Melnick’s bid for a no-no.

Melnick fired a complete game one-hitter. She worked seven innings, allowing no earned runs while striking out nine and walking one.

Score by Innings...
WW    0  0  0  0  0  2  2 - 4
DUN  2  0  0  0  1  0  2 - 5