3/28/16
Olympia 4, South Kitsap 3 (9 innings)
(Olympia, WA) The South Kitsap Wolves couldn’t have hand picked a tougher start to their Narrows 4A League schedule if they wanted too. Up first was the Olympia Bears followed by Gig Harbor and then Olympia again all in 3-straight days and all on the road.
The defending State 4A Champions found themselves down 3-0 after the first inning after the Bears jumped on starting pitcher Jack Oswood along with an error by 2nd baseman Bryce Wolfe. Scott Gunther got things started with a deep shot to center for a stand-up double. Skyler Davis added a single moving Gunther to 3rd. A wild pitch would then move Davis to 2nd and runners were on 2nd and 3rd with no out. Ben Pedigo would ground one to 2nd and Wolfe had no play but to 1st to get Pedigo but Gunther would scamper home for the 1st run.
Dalton Elliott would also ground one to Wolfe who was trying to scoop and keep Davis from scoring simply missed the ball and it was 2-0 with Elliott safe at 1st. Brenden Nee would step up and rip the 2nd double of the inning moving Elliott to 3rd still with 1 out. Christian Valdez then sac flied a sky ball to left for the RBI making it 3-0 heading into the top of the 2nd.
South Kitsap would answer getting to Bears starter Derek Downey. With 1 down the Wolves would get things going with a Drew Worden single. Conner Seaton would follow up with a single, Austin Bayne would then get hit by a pitch to load the bases. A wild pitch would score Worden while the other 2 moved up a bag. It was redemption time for Bryce Wolfe who slapped a 2-run single to right field and the game was tied 3-3 after an inning and a half.
We would then go 6 and half innings of scoreless play sending us to the 9th inning. Bears reliever Fred Carpenter would get the Wolves with no damage in the top of the 9th for his 2nd inning of shut-out ball after Downey went 7 innings.
Jerrit Chenier would try to answer again in the bottom of the 9th with his 3rd inning of relief for starter Oswood. Chenier would start off by not getting a curve ball to curve and plunked lead-off hitter Tristan Haider putting the winning run on 1st. Scott Gunther would then pop out for the 1st out. Skyler Davis would get an infield single followed by a Pedigo strike-out. The Bears had runners on 1st and 2nd with 2 outs when Dalton Elliott would also leg out an infield single to load the bases. Brenden Nee came up with the bases juiced and 2 outs and would take an outside pitch to right field dropping it in-between 3 SK fielders for the game winning hit and RBI as Haider crossed the plate to end the game.
Before we got to the game deciding 9th there were several other chances for both teams to put the winning run on the board. Olympia was aggressive on the base paths sending runners home 3 separate times only to get thrown out 3 times. Haider was caught at home in the 2nd inning, the 5th Davis got gunned down by Seaton with a laser from right field and in the 7th the Garcia connection kept Olympia from scoring the winning run when centerfielder Dusty Garcia threw a rope to catcher Alex Garcia who easily tagged out what would have been the winning run.
The Wolves blew their best chance in the 6th inning when they loaded the bases with just 1 out. SK’s Austin Bayne would ground one to Olympia 2nd baseman Skyler Davis who scooped the ball and tagged the runner headed for 2nd and firing it over to 1st in time to get Bayne for the inning ending double play. That play would also earn our ProActive Physical Therapy Play of the Game.
The Bears improved to 3-0 in league play and 5-1 overall while the Wolves dropped to 0-1 in league play and 3-2 overall. Our Tommy Lowe of the Greene Realty Group Players of the Game were Brenden Nee for the Bears and for the Wolves Conner Seaton.
