4/18/17
Curtis 6, Olympia 2
(Olympia, WA) Curtis and Olympia were in a battle for 4th in the SPSL 4A and the Vikings used some early offense to put themselves a half game in front of the Bears and now at 6-6 have their sites set on climbing the ladder trailing both Sumner and Emerald Ridge who are tied for 2nd with 7-3 records. Puyallup is running away with the Championship at 11-0.
Curtis jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the 1st when Miles Bridges walked and moved to 2nd on a base hit by AJ Marioka. Sammy Abbott then grounded one to 2nd base where Oly’s Skyler Davis scooped and flipped it to shortstop Kevin Flannery who tagged 2nd for the force but then struggled to get the ball out of hit mitt and overthrew 1st base allowing Bridges to score.
The Vikings then blew up in the 2nd inning and did all the damage with 2 outs. With 1 out Jude Rowley slapped a base hit off starting Bears pitcher Michael Came. That was followed by a base hit be Kyle Russell moving Rowley to 2nd. After a strike out and it looked like Came might escape with no damage but instead Cody Russell hit a single to load the bases. Bridges then drilled a single scoring 2 followed by an RBI single by Marioka to make it 4-0. Abbott then got up and ripped a shot to deep right center for a 2 run double and the damage was done giving Curtis a 6-0 lead.
The Bears would break through in the 4th inning but our play of the game prevented the Bears from closing the gap any further. Owen Young got on base after getting hit by a pitch by the 2nd Curtis pitcher Jack Owens. Owens replaced starter Kyler Stancato who left in the 2nd with what appeared to be an arm issue. Young would get to 2nd on a balk. After a strikeout the play of the game was turned in when the Bear’s Skyler Davis hit a hot shot to Marioka at short who fired the ball to 1st and Sammy Abbott dug it out of the dirt for the 2nd out.
The Bears would then get a big double from Brenden Nee to put the Bears on the board followed by another double this one off the bat of Scott Gunther scoring Connor Clark who came in to run for Nee. Had Davis been on it would have made the game 6-3 with Gunther on 2nd and only 1 out. Kevin Flannery then hit a single pushing Gunther to 3rd and that was followed by a strikeout to end the inning. Again, had Davis been safe the Bears would still have had another at bat and who knows if they could have closed the gap further and really changing the rest of the game.
Olympia would send the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the 7th against the 3rd Vikings pitcher Jackson Robinette. A 4th pitcher, Marioka would come in to try and finish the job and did so getting Owen Young to fly out to right field and secured the win. Marioka secured our Tommy Lowe of Greene Realty Player of the Game for Curtis and we named Brenden Nee for the Bears. Curtis is now even at 6-6 in league play while Olympia falls under 500 at 5-6.
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