4/28/17
Black Hills 7, Centralia 0
(Tumwater, WA) The Black Hills Wolves are focused on holding their position of 2nd place in the Evco league. They still could catch front running WF West who are now 10-1 and already have a series advantage over Black Hills and Tumwater. The Wolves are now 9-3 with 3 to play, 2 against Tumwater and 1 against WF West. They would need to win 2 of those to clinch 2nd place, to overtake WF West they need to win out and the Bearcats need to lose 3 out of their last 4 games.
The Wolves took care of step 1 on Friday and looked to their pitcher Kristian Knight who was dominant. Knight took advantage of a low outside strike zone the home plate umpire had and was consistent throughout the game for both sides. Knight hit that spot time and again which led to 8 strikeouts and only 1 walk. Knight would give up 4 other base runners during the game 1 was a passed ball on a strike 3 and 3 errors.
Centralia’s Broc Selstrom also got started in good shape cruising through 3 innings of scoreless play. The Wolves finally struck in the bottom of the 4th when Nate Hutson singled with 1 out and then stole 2nd. After a pop-out for the 2nd out Austin Parr stepped up and drilled a 2-out single and instead of wiggling out of a jam, Parr made Selstrom pay for it. Parr had advanced to 2nd on the throw home to try and get Hutson and then he scored on an RBI single by Ethan Loveless. Loveless also advanced to 2nd on a throw home and he scored on an RBI single from Nik Quartano and the Wolves took a 3-0 lead. Parr’s hit also earned our ProActive Physical Therapy Play of the Game.
The Wolves added another 3 in the 5th inning, Bryce Kincy got things started with a walk and then scored on an RBI double by Ethan Loveless. Loveless stole 3rd and then scored on a grounder by Nate Hutson. The throw came home and Loveless slid in under the tag. Hutson got on with a fielder’s choice and worked his way over to 3rd and then scored on a passed ball and after 5 it was 6-0. The Wolves added another run in the bottom of the 6th handing Knight a 7-0 lead heading into the top of the 7th and just 3 outs away from a no-hitter.
Knight got the 1st batter to ground out to 2nd baseman Nate Brosio and then a fly ball to center that Nate Hutson took care of. Nick Stulken then grounded a hot shot to 3rd but Quartano threw a low ball across to Parr who couldn’t dig it out and Stulken got on board with an error. Stulken then got caught leading off to far and Brosio tagged him out in a rundown to end the game and clinch the no-hitter for Knight.
Our Tommy Lowe of Greene Realty Players of the Game went to of course Kristian Knight for the Wolves and to Hodges Bailey for Centralia. Bailey made a spectacular catch in center field robbing Zach Loveless of for sure a double and likely a triple.
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