5/2/17

Tumwater 2, Black Hills 1

(Tumwater, WA) The only thing left to decide in the Evco 2A baseball league final standings was who was going to be 2nd and who will get 3rd? WF West is already League Champs and Centralia can not finish higher or lower than 4th place while Rochester and Aberdeen fell short. That left Tumwater and Black Hills, if Tumwater won they would clinch 2nd place and Black Hills would be 3rd. If the Wolves won they would clinch 2nd, the highest placing in school history, by winning again on Thursday against WF West or Tumwater losing one of their final 2 games against Aberdeen and Centralia.

Under a steady rain both teams were intent on playing this game and even though there were some muddy spots the field was deemed fit enough to start. The game began with Noah Andrews belting a deep shot to center only to see Nate Hutson run it down for the 1st out. Noah Sirkel then drilled a solid base hit. He would work his way to 3rd with 2 outs when Jackson Davis hammered a line drive down the 1st base line but the Wolves’ Alex Bowden snagged it for the 3rd out and starting pitcher Kristian Knight got out of the inning unscathed.

Tumwater’s Landen Jordan got the start on the hill and knocked down the Wolves in order. Knight counter punched with a 3 up, 3 down top of 2. Knight then helped his own cause in the Black Hills half of the 2nd. Ethan Loveless got on after getting hit by a pitch and would get moved to 2nd on a ground out by Hutson. Knight then ripped a single and Loveless was off to the races easily beating the throw home to give the Wolves a 1-0 lead.

It would stay this way due to some solid pitching and some great defense. In the Black Hills 4th they filled the bases with 1 out but Jordan got out of it without any further damage with a strike out and a slow roller back to himself for the easy toss to 1st to end the inning and the threat. In Tumwater’s 5th the Wolves turned a sweet 4-6-3 double play to end the inning from Nate Brosio to Jaycee Miller over to Bowden.

The Wolves were holding on to that slim 1 run lead as the game entered the 6th inning. With 5 innings in the books the game was official but even though the field was getting wetter, slicker and gooey the umpires didn’t dare call the game at this point there was too much riding on the outcome.

Austin Pullar led off the 6th with a walk. Noah Andrews then bunted to move Pullar over and after a miscommunication on who was going to field the ball Andrews was safe with Pullar on 2nd with no outs. The two would move up one base when a pitch got by the catcher Zach Loveless. Sirkel then hammered a hot shot right back at Knight who some how grabbed the missile in what looked like a self preservation reaction. The ball was hit so hard and caught so fast by Knight that neither base runner could even get off their base far enough for a potential double play.

Logan Hayes then hit a hard shot to the right of Wolves Shortstop Jaycee Miller who knocked it down with a diving attempt but could not record an out but did stop Pullar from coming in from 3rd. Now the bases were loaded with 1 out and Jackson Davis flopped a shot over the head of Bowden at 1st to score Pullar and tie the game.

The game tied now at 1-1 with 1 out and the bases loaded set up our ProActive Physical Therapy Play of the Game when Trayten Rodriguez flied a ball into shallow right, Bryce Kincy came up with the catch for the 2nd out but Andrews had tagged up and took off for home. Kincey fired home to try and cut off the go-ahead run but Andrews came in hard and with mud and water flying all over the ball was on the ground and Andrews had tagged home plate for the go-ahead run.

In the bottom of 6 with 1 out Knight drilled a shot that bounced off the fence in deep left field and ended up with a stand-up double. Miller then lobbed a soft pop up behind 1st base and in shallow right field but Tumwater’s Andrew Pullar came from no where to make the catch for the 2nd out and then Jordan finished up with a grounder back at him to end the scoring threat.

In the 7th Knight avoided any damage setting up one last chance in the bottom of 7 for the Wolves. Zak Loveless walked and the tying run was on with the top of the order up next. Nik Quartano then grounded a hot shot to the right of Andrew Pullar at 2nd that he gloved and flipped to Andrews who fired it to Garrett Behrens for the 4-6-3 double play. Nate Brosio then flied out to Rodriguez in left field to end the game. Our Tommy Lowe of Greene Realty Players of the Game went to both pitchers, Landen Jordan for Tumwater and Kristian Knight for the Wolves.

So the final league standings will be WF West as League Champs, Tumwater 2nd, Black Hills 3rd and Centralia 4th. The match-ups with the GSHL for the opening round are not set they still have several games to play including today where Hockinson defeated RA Long in a battle for 1st. Hockinson is 1st now with an 8-3 record and 1 game to play and right now the Hawks would host Centralia on May 9th. RA Long is 7-3 with 2 games to go and if they win both and Hockinson loses their finale they would overtake the Hawks but right now in 2nd place they would host Black Hills. The GSHL current 3rd place team is Ridgefield at 6-4 and would travel to Tumwater. 4th place right now is Columbia River at 4-4 with 4 games to play in 3 days including a double header with Washougal on Thursday. Mark Morris is 4-7 with 1 to play, Washougal is 3-4 had a game scheduled with Mark Morris today and Woodland is 2-9 whoever ends up 4th with head to WF West for their opening round game, so there are many possibilities still to be played out in the GSHL.

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