By Sarah Wagner

The Patrick County High School JV baseball team started its season off with four really good wins against Grayson County, Floyd County, and Magna Vista High School.

Patrick County played Grayson County on Monday and got two wins by scores of 13-4 and 10-3.

Although the weather has prevented them from being able to practice like they have wanted to, the Cougars still went out on the field and executed what they needed to do in order to win.

Coach Donnie Rakes felt pretty good about these wins. “Two good

wins for our young team,” he said. “We had some first game jitters, but we were able to compete well enough to win two games. Our pitchers need to learn to throw first pitch strikes to get ahead in the count and dictate the game. All in all a good start. We have some talent on this team, just need to work harder fundamentally and we will be fine.”

On Thursday the Cougars played at home to get a 9-2 win over Floyd County. This game didn’t come as easily and the bats weren’t as productive, but the Cougars were much more solid this time around to pull out a win.

“It was a really good win for our kids,” Rakes said. “We were fundamentally much better than our first couple of games. That is what JV is for, to become solid fundamentally before moving up to varsity. Our pitchers did well throwing strikes and our batters did what they needed to do. It was just a solid win.”

On Friday the Cougars played Magna Vista at home to get a win 14-4. Kelon Penn lead the Cougars on the mound with six strikeouts.

“It was a good week for our kids going 4-0, also while dealing with some injuries and the weather,” Rakes said. “I’m very pleased with our progress in the first week. Our pitchers are starting to value getting ahead in the count. I have a good group of kids.”