Hoquiam’s experience in pressure-packed situations, like a winner-to-district game, came in handy May 5 against Elma.
At Olympic Stadium, the Grizzlies’ offense jumped out on the Eagles and their pitchers kept the lead intact en route to a regular-season ending 8-5 win in Evergreen 1A League baseball.
The victory for Hoquiam (4-8, 5-11) locks it into the district tournament, which begins on Monday. Its opponent will be determined after today’s Montesano-Forks game, which will push either Elma (4-8, 5-10) or Forks into the postseason.
“We’re jelling at the right time; we’re going out, making the right decisions and hitting the ball right,” Hoquiam head coach Steve Jump said. “We got a great start, especially before they posted a four-spot later. Now, I’m very interested to know which teams will get out of districts.”
“Right now, we need (Montesano) to pull one out,” Elma head coach Todd Baun said. “I’m happy we were able to play for something for our seniors and can play one more on Monday.”
Hoquiam has spent the last two seasons before this rain-soaked campaign battling in district, regional and state tournament games. With a few state veterans, like seniors Zach Spradlin and Brody Bennett and juniors Sean McAllister and Garrett Bradley, still on the roster, the Grizzlies have weathered the storms.
Against Elma starter Barrett Burbidge, Hoquiam struck for two runs in the first — an RBI single by Bradley and a RBI fielder’s choice by Walker Dunn. After the Eagles used a three-base error and a wild pitch to score one run in the bottom of the first, the Grizzlies tacked on five more runs.
Jackson Folkers slugged an RBI double, McAllister added an RBI sacrifice fly and Bradley added an RBI double to go with a two-run fielding error by Elma for a 7-1 lead.
“At the top of our order, we got the job done to give Brody a bit of run support,” Jump added.
“A lot of it was nerves from us; many of the kids haven’t been in a position to play for something and their nerves were up and tight to start,” Baun said. “We made some errors we shouldn’t have and our pitchers walked guys a bit more. It happens and they’re learning.”
Elma fought back in the bottom of the third, pushing four runs across with two outs on the board. Hoquiam helped with two errors in the field as well, with RBI singles from Cody Williams and Alex Youckton as key hits for the Eagles.
With a 7-5 lead after three, Hoquiam starter Bennett got Elma out with two straight 1-2-3 innings and left after 104 pitches in the sixth inning. With two runners in scoring position, relief pitcher Bradley left them stranded and got a 1-2-3 seventh to lock in the win.
Hoquiam’s win gives it a season series win over Elma in three games, which is a key tiebreaker criteria. Elma, which owns a season series win over Forks, will need a Montesano win today to qualify for the district tournament. A Monte win will give Hoquiam the No. 3 seed and Elma the No. 4 seed.
On the other side, Forks can erase its 0-2 tiebreaker to Hoquiam and Elma by winning to secure the No. 3 seed. In that scenario, Hoquiam will get the No. 4 seed and Elma will be eliminated.
The game was originally scheduled for Elma’s Eagle Field, but was switched due to poor field conditions. Elma held a brief Senior Day ceremony to honor seniors Shane Ryan, Hunter Miller, Burbidge, James Quimby, Jon Yates, Cody Williams, Skyler Oien and Youckton.
Knights 11, Eagles 1
King’s Way Christian rolled past Elma in a District IV 1A tournament game at Castle Rock on May 8.
Further details were not reported.
