Yoder Pitches RBI to Front End Win in Doubleheader Against Grays Harbor

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WINLOCK — Rural Baseball split a pair of games with the Grays Harbor Longshoremen on Sunday in Winlock, winning 4-2 in the first contest and losing 9-4 in eight innings in the second affair.

Dalton Yoder pitched the RBI’ers to victory in the first game, going the distance while allowing just one earned run and striking out nine Longshoremen batters.

Patient bats led to a litany of walks for Rural Baseball and those walks, like seeds in springtime, eventually fruited, in this case producing runs. In the fourth inning alone RBI coaxed five walks and plated three of their runs thanks to the free passes. Timmy Allen had the only hit of the inning for RBI.

Sam Fagerness, Dalton Yoder and Tim Seybert also added hits for the Rural Baseball boys.

Game two was a different sort of affair as the Longshoremen sent their beast of an ace, Kyle Standstipher, to the mound. Standstipher held RBI scoreless through six innings with a firm fastball and a solid defense behind him. RBI also did themselves no favors during the game by ending multiple offensive threats with ever inventive base running errors.

Grays Harbor for their part was able to plate a run in the first inning thanks to a defensive miscue and then added another run in the fifth inning when a walked batter came round to score on a dropped third strike play.

The tides shifted in the bottom of the seventh inning when Standstipher briefly lost his command of his pitches and the strike zone. A series of singles and walks loaded the bases for RBI and then back to back walks plated the game tying runs for RBI with two outs on the board. A lined shot to shortstop off the bat of Riley Grothen was a few feet from finding turf and sending the RBI faithful into fits of pandemonium.

Nate Williamson, who had pitched the first seven innings masterfully, demanded the ball for the eighth inning.

That gumption while impressive did not pay dividends as the right handed hurler ran out of gas and Grays Harbor wound up plating seven runs in the top half of the extra frame.

RBI showed more of their proprietary gumption by notching two runs of their own in the bottom of the eighth inning, but the comeback bid ultimately fell well short of its goal.

“Something, something about tough losses being more valuable than blowout wins,” said RBI coach Nailon. “If we don’t run ourselves out of four innings in that game I’m pretty sure we’re laughing at the end of the seventh inning instead of feeling bad for ourselves after eight.”

Nailon added, “I have no doubt that this group of ballplayers is catching on to the lessons that the baseball gods are laying down for us these days. We will come back a better team for our troubles and adversities. It has been the rural way up to this point.”

RBI Splits With Tumwater

Rural Baseball Incorporated defeated Tumwater by a score of 9-2 in the first game of a doubleheader on Saturday.



Austin Robb pitched the win for RBI, going five innings while surrendering just two runs and striking out six Thunderbirds.

The rural squad put up three runs in the first, and two runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings en route to the non-league victory.

Dalton Yoder led the offensive attack for RBI, going 3-3 with a hit by pitch, a run batted in, and a run scored. Zack Caldwell also went 3-3 at the plate for RBI, with a walk, a run batted in and a run scored.

Timmy “Timber” Allen closed out the win with a two inning save for the Rural Baseball squad.

In the second contest of the day, beneath scorching skies and aerial acrobatics from the Tumwater Air Show, things got a little weird.

RBI jumped out to an early lead on the T-Birds and posted five runs in the top half of the fifth inning to take a 13-3 lead. As they took the field for the bottom half of the inning the rural squad was just three outs away from going home early with a great day feather tucked into their caps.

That outcome was not in the cards however as a nightmare inning unfolded before the bleary eyes of all in attendance. When the dust settled at the end of that fateful fifth inning, Tumwater had posted 14 runs and turned their 10-run deficit into a 4-run lead.

Walks, errors, hit batters, seeing eye singles, bad hops, falling air planes, squawking birds and buzzing bugs all combined to condemn Rural Baseball to an unforgettable inning of horrors.

“It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen on a ball field before,” said RBI coach Jordan Nailon. “We made a few mound visits. We changed pitchers. We uncrossed the bats. We moved around the dugout and sent prayers up to the baseball gods, but nothing was working out for us. Eventually, I just sat back and watched the world turn and the fire burn. There was nothing to be done.”

The loss, Nailon said, was not in vain. “There is much more to be learned from a tough loss than a blowout win,” the RBI coach said. “I mean, we’d love to win, but we certainly learned a lesson out there.”

Yoder again had a perfect day at the plate, going 4 for 4 with a run scored and two stolen bases. Dennis O’Brien added two hits for RBI, a walk, and 3 runs scored.

Timmy Allen pitched the first two innings of the game, allowing just 1 earned run, and then Yoder pitched another two innings of 1 earned run baseball. It was the RBI bullpen that let the cows out of the barn and couldn’t bring them back home, however, allowing 17 runs in three innings.

“That’s probably just bad coaching right there,” said Nailon. “Players win games and coaches lose them. Put that in your hat and doff it.”