News photo by Josh Jambor Alpena Wildcats’ pitcher Eion Eades throws a pitch in the 6th inning of game one of a double header on Thursday. The Wildcats won both games over Cadillac to start the season.

ALPENA – The Alpena Wildcats varsity baseball team got its season underway Thursday by winning both games of a doubleheader against the Cadillac Vikings at home, by a score 4-3, and 11-2.

Alpena Head Coach Eric MacKenzie broke down game one of the double header and the way his team started the season.

“It was a good game for it being the first game of the year and the second time that the team has played outside because of the weather,” he said. I think we battled well, we did not start out hitting the ball very well like we are capable of, but that came around towards the end of the first game.”

The Wildcats held a 3-2 lead prior to giving up a run in the sixth inning that tied the game. In the bottom of the seventh inning, with a runner at second base the Vikings pitcher threw an errand pitch that allowed the Alpena runner to advance to third. Setting up an opportunity to drive in the winning run.

“It was a situation where we needed to manufacture a run and get the ball in the outfield somewhere to score on a sacrifice fly,” MacKenzie said. “Unfortunately, we did not do that, we hit a hard groundball to the right side, between the third baseman and the shortstop, the shortstop babbled the ball, setting up a throw at the plate where the runner was called safe.”

“It was a good conference win to start the season, we faced some adversity, but I am pleased with the way we battled back,” MacKenzie added.

In the second game of the doubleheader there was no dramatics, Alpena dominated at the plate and its defense and pitching controlled the game from the first pitch to the last.

“Our hitting came around during the second game, which is something we try to pride ourselves on, hitting, defense, and pitching, we work really hard on all three of those things,” MacKenzie said.

The Wildcats return home next week looking to continue their ot start.