Weston Ranch baseball dropped both games of their 2-game series with Kimball High School this week. On Tuesday at Kimball, the Cougars lost a heartbreaker, 1-0, and then lost 6-3 yesterday at home. The losses moved their record to 0-6 in the Valley Oak League and 5-12 overall.

Tuesday’s loss overshadowed Dustin Tinsley’s performance on the mound. The senior pitcher amassed 16 strikeouts throughout six innings. However, after Tinsley reached his pitch limit, head coach David Hager had to remove him for Jose Aguilar. Aguliar competed admirably in the bottom of the seventh, but a timely hit by the Jaguars helped Kimball score the game’s lone run in the home half of the seventh to end the game.

“Dustin pitched a phenomenal game at Kimball,” said Hager. “He went six innings, had 16k’s, 1 HBP, and gave up four hits. He is developing into one of the best pitchers in the area and has a bright future at the next level.”

The Cougars continue to struggle at the plate offensively as they had one hit (a double by Tinsley) and got on base just five times via four hits by pitches and one walk.

“Unfortunately, we could not get anything going offensively to help Dustin,” Hager added.

Thursday’s loss at Weston Ranch saw more run-scoring from both schools, but the Cougars could only muster three runs on three hits and lost 6-3 to the Jaguars.

Ayden Tinsley took the hill for the Cougars and went all seven innings. While he did give up ten hits and six runs, only two runs were earned by Kimball. However, five Cougar errors led to four unearned runs, and the Cougars couldn’t recover. After the game was tied in the fourth inning (2-2), the Cougars gave up three runs in the sixth and one in the seventh. While they did manage to push one run across in the bottom of the seventh, the miscues in the field were too tough to overcome.

“We had multiple chances to score but could not come up with the big hit to break this horrific slump and streak we are on,” Hager said.

Weston Ranch will host Oakdale High School on April 12 and hit the road for their second game with the Mustangs on April 14.