BELTON — Aaron Wagaman has been pitching since he was 9 years old, but nothing the Temple junior right-hander has ever done on a mound can top what he achieved in Tuesday night’s season and District 12-6A baseball opener against rival Belton.
Wagaman racked up eight strikeouts while throwing a no-hitter and drove in the go-ahead run in the top of the seventh inning to help the Wildcats beat the Tigers 2-0 in a pitchers’ duel at Tiger Field.
“It’s huge, starting district 1-0. We hadn’t beaten Belton since I’ve been in high school. I mean, it’s just an awesome feeling,” Wagaman said. “This has to be my favorite game, most definitely.”
Wagaman issued walks in the third and seventh innings, and Belton’s Cooper Babcock and Scott Gurnett reached base on infield errors in the first and sixth frames, respectively. However, Wagaman, who threw 105 pitches while meffectively mixing his fastball, curveball and changeup, never let a Tigers runner advance past first base.
“That’s what Aaron’s capable of doing. He spots up well and threw a lot of inside strikes,” Temple coach Dallas Robertson said.
Babcock walked to lead off Belton’s seventh, but Wagaman got Caleb Alexander to pop out to second baseman Issac Ramos, Brady Shadrick to fly out to left fielder Eloy Diaz and Jacob Estrada to fly out to shortstop Xavier Padilla in shallow left to complete the no-hitter.
“It was all encouragement. The guys were saying, ‘You got this. Let’s finish it,’” Wagaman said. “I’m just thankful my team got two runs in the seventh. I went into the bottom of the seventh really confident. Knowing I have a defense that works for me, I went in with the mind-set of throwing strikes.”
Belton senior right-hander Jace Stephen was stellar, striking out six through six shutout innings. But he walked Brandon Goynes to start Temple’s seventh, then Tyson Magana — after fouling off two bunt attempts — ripped a single to left-center.
Wagaman’s ground ball scooted under the glove of drawn-in shortstop Ben Jones to score pinch runner Matt McDonald for a 1-0 Temple lead, then Ramos lined a run-scoring single to right-center off reliever Chase King.
“This is very big. We’ve got a very young, inexperienced team,” Robertson said. “Having to play a district game right off the bat is hard. We’ve had this on our minds since the offseason. I’m extremely proud.”
