Defensive struggles continue for Cats

AMARILLO — Clovis High baseball coach Shane Shallenberger noted that the Wildcats have committed more errors (19) than they’ve had hits (18) in the last three games.

That’s the quickest way to explain a three-game losing streak. Clovis (5-5) fell on Tuesday to host Amarillo Tascosa 10-1.

“We’ve just got to eliminate our mistakes,” Shallenberger said. “Our defense is struggling at the moment. We’ve got to try to work on that.”

Meantime, five Rebels pitchers limited the Cats to four hits, two of them by Sean Cruce. Cruce scored on a fourth-inning single by Jared Powers to pull Clovis to 4-1, but the Rebels broke it open with five unearned runs off reliver Jonathan Ware in the bottom of the sixth.

Four of the Cats’ seven errors came in that inning.

Shallenberger said he has few complaints about his team’s pitching.

“That was a question mark coming into the season,” he said. “Our pitching has shown that it can keep us in games.”

Junior Cade Wheeler took the loss, allowing four hits and four runs — two earned — while striking out four in three innings.

Clovis was in the game until Tascosa’s sixth-inning eruption, but stranded eight baserunners. The Cats left the bases loaded in the fourth and stranded two in scoring position in the sixth, Shallenberger noted.

“We had some runners in scoring position,” he said. “We just couldn’t get any big hits.”

The team returns to action with a 1 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday at Alamogordo.