Offense was a precious commodity on a 100-degree day at Kamiakin High School on Saturday, as the No. 7 Mossyrock baseball team won its first-round matchup at the 1B state tournament 1-0 over Orcas Island in eight innings, before falling to No. 2 Liberty Christian 2-0 to end its season.
“We gave them everything we had but came up a little short,” Mossyrock coach Darren Kolb said.
Liberty Christian’s Dawson Mooney tossed a no-hitter to down the Vikings, striking out 16. Mossyrock’s only baserunners came on a pair of hit batters, two errors in the field by the Patriots, and a dropped third strike.
Opposite Mooney, Tim Bowes was nearly as good for the Vikings, striking out five and allowing two runs — one earned — on seven hits.
Easton Kolb started the first game of the day with six shutout innings, and Cooper Young added two more of his own in relief. The problem for Mossyrock came on the other side of the ball, where the Vikings mustered six hits but couldn’t scratch a run across.
The breakthrough came in the bottom of the eighth, when two free passes and an error loaded the bases with two outs. Darren Kolb called to his bench and brought out Brody Shaw as a pinch hitter, and the senior delivered with a ball to the outfield that Orcas Island couldn’t handle, brining Jacob Comer home.
Mossyrock is set to graduate Comer, Bowes, Young, Barnes, Keegan Kolb, Brenden Cornelius, and Sean Potter.
