BASEBALL: Wilder splits pair with Lakeside Recovery

PORT ANGELES — Wilder Baseball split a tightly contested doubleheader with Lakeside Recovery at Civic Field.

Both games were close. Wilder pulled off a 6-5 win in the opener, thanks to a big fifth inning.

Lakeside, a Senior Babe Ruth team based in the Bellevue area, started fast in Sunday’s second game and held on to win 7-5.

In the opener, Lakeside plated two runs in the second and three in the fourth to take a 5-0 lead.

That lead remained intact until Wilder exploded for six runs in the fifth inning.

“We batted through the order, had some clutch two-out hits,” Wider coach Mike Politika said.

“That was good to see.”

Curan Bradley started the rally with a leadoff single. Bradley also was the catalyst for a four-run inning against Sandberg last week.

Dusty Bates was hit by a pitch to move Bradley to second. Brady Konopaski followed with a singled that loaded the bases.

Larsson Chapman, who just finished his freshman season at Northwest Nazarene University, brought in Bradley and Bates with a two-run single.

Eathen Boyer then hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Konopaski and cut Lakeside’s advantage to 5-3.

Evan Hurn kept the inning going with a single that gave Wilder two on with two outs.

Zach Withrow followed with an RBI double to bring Wilder within one run, and Janson Pederson hit a two-run single that capped off the scoring and gave Wilder a 6-5 lead.

Wilder’s six-run fifth gave pitcher Travis Paynter the win. Paynter went five innings, striking out four and allowing five runs and five hits.

James Grubb relieved Paynter and put in two effective innings, allowing only one hit and one walk while striking out three.

“Travis competed all game. He wasn’t as sharp as he normally is, but he definitely pitched well enough to get the win,” Politika said.

“James came in and shut the door.”

Wilder fell behind 5-1 in the second game, but wasn’t able to pull off its second comeback of the day.

Lakeside roughed up Wilder starter Pederson for four runs in the first inning and one more in the second.

The inning included an error by Wilder, and two of Lakeside’s runs came with two outs.

“We played pretty good, but we definitely got in a hole after that first inning,” Politika said.

“They definitely put pressure on us. They kept us on our heels that second game. We never really did feel comfortable.”

In the second inning, Lakeside managed to turn a leadoff walk into a run for a 5-0 lead.

Wilder scored one run in the bottom half of the first and three more in the third to cut the lead to 5-4.

But Lakeside tagged Tanner Rhodefer for two in the fifth, and Wilder’s only response was a run in the sixth.

Boyer was 3 for 3 in the game with a pair of doubles, a run and three RBIs. He continued his hot start to the season by going 4 for 4 overall Sunday with four RBIs.

Bradley was 2 for 3 with a run, and Tanner Gochnour returned from injury to play a few innings in the field and go 1 for 1 at the plate with a double and a run.

Wilder will face Lakeside Recovery again a the Firecracker Classic in Port Angeles during the Fourth of July weekend.

This week, Wilder (6-5) travels to Ephrata for the High Desert Classic that runs from Friday through Sunday.

“That’ll be a good test for us,” Politika said.

“That’s where the state tournament is played, so we’ll gain some familiarity.”

First Game

Wilder 6, Lakeside Recovery 5

Lakeside 0 2 0 3 0 0 0 — 5 6 0

Wilder 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 — 6 10 0

WP- Paynter

Pitching Statistics

Wilder: Paynter 5 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 4 K, 0 BB; Grubb 2 IP, H, 3 K, BB.

Hitting Statistics