MONTEREY — Although the Monterey High School baseball team was down on the scoreboard against Oak Hill High School in an LHSAA District 5-B game, the Wolves never lost their positive attitude Thursday afternoon.

Monterey players were pounding on the side of the dugout in support of their teammates at bat. They would also yell “You got this” at the top of their lungs. However, that positivity did not translate to the diamond as the Wolves loss 13-3 to the No. 1 Rams.

Even though Monterey lost by 10 runs yet again this season to Oak Hill, coach Patrick Wells was proud of his team’s performance.

“This is the No. 1 team in the state we are playing,” Wells said. “I have one senior, two sophomores and the rest are freshman and eighth graders and they played a great game (on Thursday). We made a couple errors, but our defense is playing great and our bats came somewhat alive which is what we are looking for.”

In the first six innings of the game, the Wolves hung tough with the Rams.

Oak Hill was able to build a quick 4-0 lead through the first two innings. It seemed like the Rams were going to go on to win with ease. Yet, Monterey’s defense stepped up and it responded at the plate.

In the second inning, the Wolves’ Tailor Farris was able to get across home plate to give his team its first run of the contest. Then, in innings three through six, Monterey countered every Oak Hill attack.

When the Rams scored one run in the fourth, the Wolves did as well. Then, when Oak Hill added another run in the fifth, Monterey tacked one on, too.

“We don’t lay down,” Wells said. “We want to play a whole game. That’s what we want to do.”

The Wolves’ responsiveness diminished in the seventh and final inning as the Rams were able to pile on seven more runs to create an insurmountable lead.

“We knew they thought they were just going to come in and whoop us,” said lone senior Cameron King. “Then we come in here with nothing to lose. We are No. 23 in the state, we had nothing to lose, and we just had fun playing and just ended up hanging up with through the sixth.”

On Thursday after the game, Monterey players were all smiles. They were saying to one another how pleased they were that they hung with a team like Oak Hill.

For King, he believes that was the best performance of the Wolves’ season thus far.

“I’m pretty happy,” King said. “I thought we played pretty great today. Best game we played for a fact.”

With the loss, the Wolves are 4-10 and 0-2 in the district, with the other loss coming from the Rams on Tuesday, 12-2. And while the year has been a struggle, Wells is proud his team keeps showing up and puts on gritty performances like this one.

“I’m very proud of them,” Wells said. “We’ve had a very hard schedule. We’ve played 3A and 2A schools, and most those teams have been ranked in the top five. We’ve had a really tough schedule for such a young team. It’s like a JV team playing varsity baseball. But we have a lot of big things to look forward to and the team keeps putting up good fights.”