4/19/16
WF West 4, Tumwater 1
(Centralia, WA) The 4-1 WF West Bearcats knew a win over the Tumwater T-Birds would nearly clinch the Evco 2A Title and certainly put tons of pressure on whomever would emerge from a 3-way tie for 2nd where they are all 2-3 on the season heading into action on Tuesday.
The Bearcats would load the bases 4 innings in this game but only scored in one of those innings. The bottom of the 2nd the Bearcats would get a lead-off walk from Kolby Steen followed by a walk to Brody Holcomb. Tumwater pitcher Joseph Brascher got out of a bases loaded situation in the bottom of the 1st but walking the 1st 2 was not helping his cause in the 2nd.
Drew Forgione the #9 hitter would then square to bunt the 2 runners over but the ball rolled foul down the 3rd base line. The 2 base runners were off on contact and it turned out it was a good thing because Forgione actually stopped when the ball bounced off the outside cut of the base path and back into fair territory and a wide throw to 1st got Forgione on base by error. So for the 2nd time in 2 innings the Bearcats had bases loaded for the 2nd time but with no outs and Hunter Fuchs (pronounced Fox) made them pay when he crushed a double to the right-center gap clearing the bases and giving the Bearcats a 3-0 lead. Elijah Johnson would slap an RBI single driving in Fuchs for the 4-0 lead, 1 of Johnson’s 4 hits on the day.
In the top of the inning Tyson Guerrero made our ProActive Physical Therapy Play of the Game when with a runner on 1st Jackson Davis drilled one into center-right field and likely would have driven in Tumwater’s Noah Sirkel but Guerrero laid out, perpendicular to the field and made an amazing catch denying the T-Birds of getting on the board 1st.
Tumwater would get on the board in the bottom of the 6th when Sirkel unloaded a deep shot to center with a lead-off triple. Logan Hayes then came through with a solid single to left easily scoring Sirkel. Bearcat pitcher Jacob Cleary had given up several hits but spread them out over his 6 innings of work that it never felt like the T-Birds were about to bust loose with a big inning until the 6th.
After Hayes’ RBI single, Davis slapped a base hit and now the tying run came to the plate with 1 out. Cleary got Michael Wagar to ground one to Johnson who got the force at 2nd and then Cleary got a strike out to end the Tumwater threat and holding on to a 4-1 lead.
Guerrero came in to pitch the 7th and after giving up a lead off hit to Noah Andrews who was also 4-4 on the day, Guerrero would retire the next 3 in a row to secure the win. WF West is now 5-1 in league play with 3 games to play while Tumwater drops to 2-4. Centralia handled Black Hills and so the Tigers emerge as the the 3-3 2nd place team while the Wolves also fall to 2-4.
Our Tommy Lowe of the Greene Realty Group Players of the Game went to Elijah Johnson for the Bearcats but Hunter Fuchs and Tyson Guerrero both could have taken the award while Noah Andrews picked up the honor for Tumwater. Noah Sirkel was also seriously considered with his strong effort.
Photo Gallery