PORT ANGELES — Tuesday started out with snow flurries in the morning.
It didn’t look promising for baseball later in the day, but it turned into a near-perfect day at Civic Field for the Port Angeles Roughriders, who pounded the ball all over the field, played near-spotless defense and got solid pitching in an 8-0 win over South Whidbey.
All under a sunny sky.
The team from Langley made the trip during spring break against a Riders team that had all of their players over the break.
“We want to compete. We want to play baseball,” said coach Zac Moore.
The Riders had 12 hits on the day and a trio of Port Angeles pitchers allowed just four hits as the Riders have outscored their past two opponents 20-4.
The defense gave up one error as the Riders improved their record to 5-3 overall. It was the third Port Angeles shutout of the season and the third win out of the past four games. Two out of the Riders’ three losses were by one run.
“We executed in all facets. We ran well, played well defensively,” Moore said.
Ezra Townsend was the star of this game. One of the few left-handed bats in the lineup, he belted a deep home run over the right-center fence. Townsend also made several great plays at first, catching a couple of wide throws and making sweep tags for outs and pouncing on a slow nubber and making a perfect throw to pitcher Colton Romero covering at first to prevent an infield hit. He also got the tag down on a pickoff play at first to nail a South Whidbey baserunner.
“Ezra did a good job after feeling like he had a couple of not good games,” Moore said.
Townsend said he wasn’t looking to hit a home run. “I was just trying to put it in play,” he said.
Jordan Shumway also had a good game with a pair of hits and an RBI.
Alex Angevine and Kole Acker executed a perfect suicide squeeze with Angevine making a clean bunt for an RBI and Acker coming in to score.
Elijah Flodstrom started the game, going three shutout innings to pick up the win. It was his third shutout win of the year. He also went 3-for-4 at the plate with an RBI and stolen base. Luke Flodstrom had a pair of hits and Acker a single.
Romero pitched two shutout innings in relief, striking out three, while Blake Sohlberg pitched the final two innings, giving up two hits and striking out five. Sohlberg had a remarkable seventh inning, allowing the bases to get loaded with no outs as South Whidbey attempted to rally. He struck out the side to get out of that jam.
Port Angeles has another spring break game scheduled Friday at Mount Tahoma, though the forecast calls for rain. The Riders return to Olympic League play at Olympic on Monday.
Port Angeles 8, South Whidbey 0
SW 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 4 2
PA1 1 1 0 1 4 X — 8 12 1
WP: E. Flodstrom LP: Davis
Pitching
Port Angeles — Flodstrom 3 IP, H, K; Romero 2 IP, H, 3K; Sohlberg 2 IP, 2 H, 5 K.
Batting
Port Angeles — Townsend 1-3, HR, 2R, RBI, BB, SB; E. Flodstrom 3-4, R, RBI, SB; L. Flodstrom 2-3, R; Shumway 2-4, RBI; Angevine 0-2, R, BB, RBI, Sac; Romero 1-4, R, RBI; Acker 1-3, R.
Port Angeles’ Colton Romero, left, catches an infield fly before tripping over teammate Elijah Flodstrom in the fourth inning of Tuesday’s game against South Whidbey at Port Angeles Civic Field. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
Port Angeles’ Alex Angevine bunts to advance the baserunners in the second inning against South Whidbey on Tuesday at Port Angeles Civic Field. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
