Friday's 2A Baseball: Bearcats Win Round One

The Bearcats kept their Evergreen 2A Conference record pristine, but the host Tigers at least made things interesting on Friday in the first installment of baseball’s Swamp Cup series at Ed Wheeler Field.

Tyson Guerrero was in control for most of his six innings on the mound, and W.F. West broke a 2-2 tie in the fifth inning with five runs for its eventual 7-2 win.

Bearcat designated hitter Lane Douglass hit an RBI single to start the scoring in the pivotal fifth frame, and finished the game 2 for 3 with a pair of RBIs. Nole Wollan followed suit with a two-run single, Brock Jones scored a run with a double and Leandre Gaines knocked in another with a hit to tilt what had been a tight contest into a five-run lead.

“We knew they’d put up a good fight,” Douglass said. “It’s always a good fight against them.”

Both teams were playing their fourth game in three days but, given the difference in the depth of the teams’ pitching rotations, the busy schedule was more of an issue for the hosts.

Derek Beairsto made his first start of the year and, outside of a rough fifth inning, was effective.

“We knew it was going to be a battle, obviously, just playing them alone, but let alone being a little short-handed in the pitching department,” Tiger coach Rex Ashmore said. “But (Derek) threw very well for himself.”

Guerrero, one of the Bearcats’ two Washington State University-bound aces, was coming off a no-hitter in his last outing, and was perfect through three frames before the Tigers caught up to his fastball.

“Other than last night, seeing Tumwater, you don’t see many kids like that,” Ashmore said. “It’s obviously going to take a while to adjust to that type of pitching, and then I thought we did make some good adjustments.”

Jeremy Wood led off the fourth with a single and stole second, and Jerod Frias’ ensuing sacrifice bunt was mishandled to put runners on the corners. Two batters later Colby Steele doubled to score two runs, and Broc Selstrom added a single before the Bearcats could get out of the inning.

“He didn’t have command of all three pitches today, and he knows, and we all know as pitchers, that if we can’t throw anything other than a fastball eventually somebody’s going to put it in play,” Bullock said. “They did a nice job of driving the ball off of him when they figured out he didn’t have his good stuff today.”

Guerrero, though, was back on track in the fifth and sixth, allowing just one baserunner — on a single through the infield from Frias — and striking out three. He finished with eight strikeouts without walking a batter and gave up a single earned run.

“I think that shows the character of Tyson, and I told him that, that on his bad day he can go six innings and give up, what, two runs?” Bullock said. “He really competed for us. He didn’t cave in, and he pitched from behind a lot, too.”

Guerrero pushed across the first run of the game with an RBI double in the top of the third inning, and the next batter — Douglass — drove Guerrero home with a single.

“I’ve been struggling a little bit, but I just jumped in the cages today and tried fixing everything,” Douglass said. “Everything worked out.”

Gaines finished 2 for 3 and Jones was 2 for 4 for W.F. West. Gabe O’Neil pitched the seventh inning, striking out two and getting a grounder to third to end the game.

Despite its first EvCo loss of the season, Ashmore was happy with his team’s performance.

“Tonight really helped us a ton, for the kids to believe that, although they’re very good, I think we’re getting better every day,” he said. “I thought it definitely helped us tonight and I thought we grew up a bit tonight, and showed a little bit of fight.”

The Bearcats, at this point in the season, have beaten each team in the league at least once and won the season series’ with Black Hills, Tumwater and Aberdeen — along with winning 11 games in a row after losing twice to open the season back on March 10 in Anacortes.

“We’re just worried about one game at a time. We’re not looking ahead,” Douglass said. “We’re just trying to get through and focus on one team.”

Centralia (10-3, 7-1 league) plays at Rochester at 2 p.m. on Saturday, then plays at Tumwater on Tuesday. W.F. West (11-2, 9-0 league) hosts Rochester on Tuesday.

Warriors Fight Past Bobcats

ROCHESTER — The Warriors picked up their first Evergreen 2A Conference win of the season here Friday, beating Aberdeen 8-4.

Keegan Goldrick worked the first four innings, working out of a few jams along the way, and Bodey Smith entered the game in the fifth in a bases-loaded situation and escaped relatively unscathed.

“He worked his way out of it and finished extremely strong,” Rochester coach Brad Quarnstrom said.

Tyler Soderback went 3 for 3 at the plate with a pair of doubles and an RBI, Rylee Sommer went 2 for 3 with a double, a triple and an RBI, and Joel McCarthy was 2 for 2 and drove in a pair of runs.

“We played good enough to win,” Quarnstrom said. “It was a good team win, with a lot of contributors in a lot of different ways. It’s good to get a win, who cares how, in the league column.”

Rochester (4-7, 1-7 league) hosts Centralia at 2 p.m. on Saturday.