CENTRALIA — Five errors conspired to bring down Wilder Baseball Club in a 4-2 loss to Northwest Reign Black in the quarterfinals of the 64-team GSL College Showcase Tournament.
Wilder fell despite a combined two-hitter by starting pitcher James Grubb and Janson Pederson.
“They didn’t have any earned runs and they only had two hits,” Wilder coach Mike Politika said.
“Throwing the baseball, just some simple throwing and catching fundamentals hurt us.
“We had an off-day defensively. If we play tight defense we win that game.
“Both James and Janson pitched well enough to get a win and a save for sure.”
Wilder totaled eight hits in the loss, including doubles by Pederson and Travis Paynter.
“We had plenty of hits, we just didn’t do enough with them,” Politika said.
“We hit into a double play which killed a rally in the second inning.
“We had two hits that inning, a double and a single, and we ended up stranding Travis at third with an inning-ending double play.
Politika said his team also had a chance to score in the opening innning but couldn’t plate any runners.
“This was a good team, they ended up going to the championship game [losing 4-1 to Northwest Bandits Elite,] but that’s baseball,” Politika said.
Wilder finished the wood-bat tournament with a 3-1 record.
“We had a great weekend,” Politika said.
“We played three great games up to this point and now we are ready to start the state tournament.”
Wilder opens play today in the four-team, double elimination 16-18U Senior Babe Ruth State Tournament at Issaquah.
Wilder will face River Dog White of Moses Lake at 12:30 p.m., and the winner or loser between Lakeside Recovery and Rockhounds of Ephrata at 3 p.m. or 5:30 p.m.
Northwest Reign Black 4, Wilder 2
NW Reign 0 2 0 0 1 0 1 — 4 2 2
Wilder 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 — 2 8 5
LP- Pederson
Pitching Statistics
Wilder: Grubb 4 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 3 BB, 3 K; Pederson 3 IP, 2 R, 1 H, 2 BB, 4 K.
Hitting Statistics
Wilder: Bradley 2-3, R; Hurn 1-3, RBI; Pederson 1-3, 2B; Paynter 2-3, 2B; Chapman 1-2, Rhodefer 1-3, R.
Crosscutters split
The Olympic Crosscutters also played at the tournament, splitting two of four contests.
“We lost a real close game in our opener 2-1 to CDA Lumbermen,” Cutters coach John Qualls said.
“Kye Ryan threw a great one, I think he had a no-hitter going through four innings before the rain came came down and really effected us and the other teams.”
Needing a victory to effectively stay alive in their pool, the Cutters fell 7-1 to eventual tournament champion Northwest Bandits Elite.
“When you get a chance to face the high 80 [mph] guys it’s a great experience builder,” Qualls said of playing the Bandits.
“All in all it was a great, successful weekend. We created a lot of good contacts with schools and our kids are being invited to workouts and have created that communication.”
The Cutters will host the American Legion AA District Tournament this weekend at Civic Field in Port Angeles.
The tournament schedule was not available as of Monday.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
