4/22/25

Tumwater 8, Shelton 3

(Tumwater, WA) On Friday night, the Tumwater Thunderbirds took complete control of first place in the Evergreen 2A Conference with an impressive 7-0 win over WF West. With the T-Birds flying high, the red-hot Shelton Highclimbers were looking to rain on the Tumwater parade as Shelton made the trip to Tumwater on Tuesday riding a four-game winning streak and sitting in third place in the league. Two teams that don’t walk many batters took the field in what was expected to be an action packed matchup.

Jimmy Womach got the start on the mound for Tumwater and struck out the first two batters that he faced. Jax Ward extended the inning with a blooper that sat down in right field. Ward was able to leg out a hustle double to bring Cam Winans to the plate and he wasted no time. A base hit to right field brought home Ward and the back-to-back two-out hits gave Shelton the first run of the game and the 1-0 lead.

A walk, an error, and a passed ball allowed Will Bond to score in the bottom of the 1st to tie the game at 1-1. In the bottom of the 2nd, Tumwater would push across another run to take the 2-1 lead. However, while Tumwater had the lead, they couldn’t buy a hit against Shelton’s starter Gunnar Jensen. The sophomore didn’t allow a hit in his two innings of work but did walk four while errors allowed the T-Birds to take a 2-1 lead while still looking for their first hit.

After Luke Overbay walked to begin the home half of the 3rd, Michael Carlson came in to pitch for the Highclimbers. Finally, the T-Birds recorded their first hit with a single by Derek Thompson. With runners on first and second and nobody out, Landon Roy came to the plate and opened the game up a little bit for Tumwater. Roy sent a double to left center field to score both Overbay and Thompson while he moved up to third on an issue with the relay. The T-Bird bats had come to life and despite Shelton cutting down another run at the plate on a nice play by Daniel Crossan, Tumwater still had a 4-1 lead.

Womach finished his day up with four innings of one-run ball while allowing just two hits and no walks while striking out five. Luke Overbay came in to pitch and he struggled in the 5th. Walks to Daniel Crossan and Michael Carlson were followed by Carl Turnbow being hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out in the top of the 5th. Boston Madison then recorded a base hit to move everyone up and score a run to make it 4-2. Jax Ward then got hit by a pitch to score another run to make it 4-3 with the bases still loaded. Overbay then settled in with a huge strikeout of Cam Winans before Jacob Jacoby came to the plate. He sent a chopper back up the middle where Derek Thompson backhanded it. The throw to first was in the dirt, but Landon Roy helped out his team with a great pick to get the out and end the inning with Tumwater still clinging to a 4-3 lead.

Both those runs were virtually erased immediately as Tumwater got to Michael Carlson in the bottom of the 5th. A double by Derek Thompson and a single by Landon Roy put runners on the corners. Jimmy Womach then hit into a fielder’s choice to score a run and make it 5-3. With a runner on third, Charlie Crawford then drove another run in with a grounder to first to make it 6-3.

Luke Overbay settled in with a quick 1-2-3 6th inning and the T-Birds pulled away in the home half. A walk to Cody Lambert and Will Bond and a hit batter to Derek Thompson loaded the bases with one out. Landon Roy came back to the plate and continued his huge day. A two-run single for Roy extended the Tumwater lead to 8-3 and put Shelton in a tough spot. The Highclimbers got a runner to third in the 7th, but that was it. A fly ball by Jax Ward was caught in center by Peyton Davis to end the game. Tumwater started fast and ended strong to earn a tough 8-3 win over Shelton.

Our Thorbeckes MVP of the game went to Landon Roy for Tumwater. The first baseman had himself a day at the plate, going 3-4 with a double and four RBI. To go with it, he made a fantastic pick at first to save an error and two runs in the top of the 5th that would have given Shelton the lead. Driving half of Tumwater’s runs and saving at least two Shelton runs made it a no-brainer that Roy was the star of the show on Tuesday.

Tumwater moves to 9-4 on the season and remain perfect in EvCo play at 7-0. Shelton has their four-game winning streak snapped as they drop to 6-7 overall and 5-3 in league play. The two teams will meet again in Shelton on Wednesday at 4:30pm. Tumwater will then visit Black Hills on Thursday at 5pm while Shelton visits Aberdeen on Friday at 4:30 in the rubber game of their season series.

ESN Postgame Show

Highlights

Shelton Strikes First

Roy Two-Run Double

Tumwater Adds Insurance

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