SPOKANE — All three Olympic Peninsula teams won at their respective American Legion tournaments this weekend, as the Wilder Juniors and Olympic Crosscutters joined the Wilder Seniors in the win column.
Wilder Senior won in dramatic fashion Saturday in the American Legion AAA tournament with Ian Miller throwing a complete-game no-hitter to beat the Hanford Flames 1-0 (Miller also scored the only run of the game). Later in the day, Wilder Junior beat Bellingham Post 7 6-2 in the AA tournament in Spokane. The Olympic Crosscutters completed the trifecta, beating Shadle Park 4-1 in the American Legion A tournament being held in Seattle.
All three teams played late Sunday in the second round. Results of those games were not known before press deadline, but go to www.peninsuladaily news.com to get results.
The Wilder Seniors played the Vancouver Mavericks on Sunday, while Wilder Junior played Pullman and the Crosscutters played Eastmont.
In the Wilder Junior win over Bellingham, the trio of Timmy Adams, Lucas Jarnigan and Jacob Felton did much of the damage. Jarnigan was 3 for 3 with a run and an RBI, while Adams was 2 for 4 with a triple, two runs scored and an RBI.
Felton, meanwhile, had a crucial two-run double to break up a 0-0 tie in the fourth inning. He finished with three RBIs total.
“Jacob had a monster hit for us,” said coach Zac Moore. He also said Felton played a great game defensively at first base.
“[Felton] had a huge game all the way around,” Moore said.
On the mound, Tate Gahimer and Adam Watkins combined to pitch a terrific game. Gahimer started, going five innings and giving up two runs, neither of them earned, on six hits, two walks and a strikeout. Watkins pitched the final two innings, allowing no runs on one hit, and two walks.
Moore said Gahimer actually carried a no-hitter into the fourth inning.
“It’s really important to win that first game in a double-elimination,” Moore said.
Wilder Jr. 6, Bellingham 2
WJr. 0 0 0 2 0 1 3 — 6 8 2
B’ham 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 — 2 7 2
WP: Gahimer LP: Rice
Pitching
Wilder Jr. — Gahimer 5IP, 6H, 0ER, K, 2BB; Watkins 2IP, H, 0ER, 2BB.
Bellingham — Rice 7IP, 8H, 6ER, K, 3BB.
Hitting
Wilder Jr. — Jarnigan 3-3, R, RBI, BB; Adams 2-4, 3B, 2R, RBI; Felton 1-3, 2B, 3RBI; Ripley 1-4, R; Meadows 1-2, R, BB; Lunt 0-3, RBI, SF.
Bellingham — Patterson 2-4, RBI; Binning 2-4, 2B; Nickelson 2-4, 2B; Frere 1-2, R.
Crosscutters win
SEATTLE — The Crosscutters had to manfacture their four runs and they only managed two hits on the day.
“We had to get runs any way we could,” said coach John Qualls. “We were hitting the ball swuar and solid, but right at guys.”
Qualls said when the Crosscutters did manage to get baserunners (they had three walks in addition to their two hits), they were especially aggressive on the basepaths trying to create runs. “That’s kind of been our M.O. all year long,” Qualls said.
Brandon Barnett and Trent Indelicato each had a hit, a run scored and an RBI. Connor Bear had a bases-loaded walk for an RBI and Logan Olson also had an RBI on a groundout.
Again, solid pitching was key to the Crosscutters’ win as Silas Thomas and Joey Hildabrandt combined for an outstanding game. Thoams went six innings, gave up just four hits and one walk while giving up a run and striking out five, outdueling Shadle’s pitcher Landon Plourde. Hildabrandt came in to close in the seventh and pitched a perfect inning, allowing no baserunners and striking out the side.
Qualls said Thomas was coming off a sore arm, so had been resting a bit as a pitcher. But, once he got into the fourth inning, “he found his groove once he got dialed in. He threw 16 first-pitch strikes.”
Hildabrandt, meanwhile, fired pure heat at Shadle. An eighth-grader, his pitches reach 80 mph, Qualls said.
“At that age, that’s pretty incredible,” he said.
Qualls said he feels good about how his team is doing so far in the tournament. He said two-thirds of the Crosscutters are eighth-graders and they are going up against teams mostly made up of high school freshmen and sophomores at the state tourney.
Crosscutters 4, Shadle Park 1
Shadle 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 — 1 4 1
OC 0 0 0 0 4 0 x — 4 2 2
WP: Thomas LP: Plourde
Pitching
Shadle — Plourde 6IP, 2H, 2ER, 4K, 3BB.
Crosscutters — Thomas 6IP, 4H, ER, 5K, BB; Hildabrandt, 1IP, 0H, 0ER, 3K, 0BB.
Hitting
Shadle — Weber 1-3, 2B, R; Holmes 1-4, 2B, RBI.
Crosscutters — Barnett 1-3, R, RBI; Indelicato 1-2, R, RBI; Olson 0-3, RBI; Bear 0-2, BB, RBI; Kilmer 0-1, R, BB; Eaton 0-2, R, BB.
