NAPAVINE — The Napavine and Toutle Lake baseball teams beat the expected storm on Wednesday, getting in the second game of their series.
It was a lower-scoring affair than when the two teams met on Monday, but the Tigers were able to come away with a 4-1 win to complete the sweep.
Layton Griffith led the way on the mound, posting his best performance of the young season.
The Ducks’ leadoff hitter reached on a single and came around to score on an error to get Toutle Lake on the board, but after that, Griffith was nearly unhittable.
After that first single, he retired 17 of the next 20 batters he faced, allowing just one more hit in the process.
It took him just 76 pitches to get through six innings, allowing just two hits and the unearned run while walking just one and striking out four.
“I thought he threw well,” Napavine coach Brian Demarest said. “He threw strikes, we played decent defense behind him, and got enough runs. A win is a win in this league, so we’ll take it.”
The offense did enough to give Griffith some run support. Tommy Deebach tied the game with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the first, and a solo home run from Beckett Landram gave Napavine the lead in the bottom of the third.
It’s the latest big swing in Landram’s impressive start to the season. Through six games, he’s hit two home runs, drove in 20 runs, and he’s slashing .684/.750/1.158.
“He has a really good bat, he’s got fast hands, and he’s just strong,” Demarest said. “He doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. If you throw a pitch that he likes, he usually doesn’t miss it. He’s been hitting the ball really well for us.”
Deebach added an RBI single later in the third, and he later scored on an error in the fifth to make it 4-1 Napavine.
Hudson Chambers relieved Griffith in the seventh, and he worked around a pair of errors and a hit batter to earn the save.
With the win, the Tigers remain undefeated at 6-0, including a 5-0 mark in C2BL play.
Between the basketball team’s postseason run and the weather preventing them from getting a lot of practice time in, Demarest said that they’ve been relying on the experience this team has together.
“We have a lot of kids that have played a lot of baseball,” Demarest said, pointing out both Cal Bullock and Jack Nelson, who have been playing since eighth grade. “We’re relying on that right now. It’s not a lot that we’re doing as coaches, it’s just these guys being experienced. So far, so good.”
The Tigers will look to remain unbeaten on Friday, when they are set to host Rainier in another league matchup.
