A great pitching day propelled Nocona baseball to a win against Chico at home on Tuesday night.
The Indians won 6-0 against the Dragons thanks to an 18 strikeout day from pitcher Ty Presley. He allowed only three hits and walked one batter during the shutout performance, pitching all seven innings in the process.
On the offensive side, Nocona hitters did their damage in the first three innings. Charlie Fuller led off the first inning with a walk. Presley followed with a double and Kooper Hansard drew a walk to load the bases with no outs.
Wesley Murphey then drew another walk to get in one run. After a strike out, Matthew Page grounded out at third base, but it allowed one more run to score to make it 2-0. A ground out followed for the third out.
In the second inning, leadoff for the Indians Bodie Davis was able to get on base thanks to a dropped strike three. Followed a strike out, Fuller drew a walk. Presley hit a ground ball to the pitcher, but an error allowed him to load the bases up.
Hansard then hit a fly ball to left field that was deep enough to advance all the runners and score a run. Murphey then hit a line drive single to left field that drove in the two base runners to make the score 5-0.
Anthony Torres followed, getting on base thanks to an error from the shortstop. That was followed by a third out fly ball to center field to end the second inning.
In the third inning leadoff hitter Miguel Olivares hit a single to get on base. After stealing second, Davis grounded out which allowed him to advance to third base. During the next at-bat he scored on the base-paths to put Nocona up 6-0. Two more strikeouts followed to end the third inning.
The Indians did not score for the rest of the game, but did have their chances. In the fourth inning, Hansard and Murphey drew walks and Torres hit a single to load the bases up with only one out. Unfortunately, a strikeout followed by a lineout at second base ended that scoring chance.
Murphey and Torres tried to start a two out rally in the sixth inning with back-to-back singles, with a balk allowing Murphey to eventually reach third base.
It would not matter though as Presley and the defense finished off the shutout in the next inning.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.