PORT ANGELES — Stuck in a four-game losing streak that saw a once-healthy hold on third place in the Olympic League evaporate, Port Angeles slugged its way out of its rut with an 11-1 senior night triumph against Olympic in six innings.
With Wednesday’s win, the Roughriders (6-6, 9-8) earn the third seed at the district baseball tournament and a matchup with the Seamount League’s Lindbergh Eagles (8-6).
That contest is set for 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Franklin Pierce High School in Tacoma.
“It was a big win as far as seeding goes,” coach Vic Reykdal said.
“There’s a big difference in facing the South Puget Sound No. 1 versus the Seamount
No. 2.”
Against the Trojans, Port Angeles was buoyed by a hot start at the mound and at the plate by Travis Paynter.
Paynter put together a 1-2-3 first inning on the mound, then smoked a line-drive double to left field to score Matt Hendry and move Logan Ciaciuch to third.
Ciaciuch came home for the second Riders run on a passed ball, and a Jace Bohman sacrifice fly staked Paynter and Port Angeles to a 3-0 lead after one inning.
“Coming out and scoring some runs was big for us,” Reykdal said.
“That was huge for us because I think the team was a little nervous coming into this game, so that helped us relax a little bit and settle in.”
Paynter worked himself out of a tough spot with runners on second and third with one out in the second inning, fanning two straight Trojans to close the door.
Ben Basden hustled for a two-out double down the first-base line in the second inning.
He later motored home on a well-struck single to left field from Hendry to put the Riders up 4-0.
“Bennie’s been hitting it hard, and that first shot he did a nice job legging it out,” Reykdal said.
Paynter came up first in the bottom of the third and launched a deep drive to right-center field — a triple that likely would have been a home run if the summer outfield fence was set up at Civic Field.
“Oh, yeah, I think that was out,” Reykdal said.
“Travis has hit a couple of bombs for us in the past two games, and I’m hoping we see more of that. That was a big rip.”
An Eathen Boyer sacrifice fly brought home another run and put Port Angeles up 5-0.
Paynter exited the game after four innings, having struck out three, walking none and allowing Olympic’s only two hits on the night.
Curan Bradley came on in relief and walked the bases loaded, but the Trojans couldn’t manage a hit against the lefty, scoring their lone run on a passed ball in the fifth.
Bradley struck out three, walked three and hit two batters in his two innings pitched.
“The umpire called a pretty tight zone today and it was a little hard to adjust to it, but the kids battled through,” Reykdal said.
RBI singles from Bradley and Ciaciuch, combined with a bases-loaded walk to Hendry and two straight hit batters, helped the Riders push across six runs in the bottom of the sixth and end the contest via the 10-run rule.
“They are a good team and are capable of banging out four runs in a hurry, so I felt like it was still a really close game [entering the bottom of the sixth],” Reykdal said.
“So it was really nice to take care of business and wrap it up early.”
Port Angeles received solid play from its seniors on senior night.
Connor Heilman deftly snagged a lined shot at first base, Micaiah Anderson ranged quickly to bring in a well-struck fly ball to deep left field and catcher Ricky Crawford caught a two-hitter.
Ciaciuch overcame some early errors to put up an RBI single and Jeremy Chase poked a shot between the legs of Jaiden Pereira to plate the final run for the Riders.
“That was a nice ending for Jeremy,” Reykdal said.
“He battled in that at-bat and brought in the last run for us and got to celebrate with the team.”
Port Angeles 11, Olympic 1
Olympic 0 0 0 0 1 0 — 1 2 3
Port Angeles 3 1 1 0 0 6— 11 9 3
WP- Paynter; LP- Huddleston
Pitching Statistics
Olympic: Huddleston 3 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 2 BB; Kawahara IP, H, K; Martinez-Castorena IP, 3 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, K.
Port Angeles: Paynter 4 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 K; Bradley 2 IP, 0 H, ER, 3 BB, 2 HBP.
Hitting Statistics
Olympic: Walters 1-3, Aerne 1-3.
Port Angeles: Hendry 3-3, BB, 2 RBI, 2 R; Paynter 2-2, 2B, 3B, RBI; Ciaciuch 1-3, HBP, RBI, 2 R; Basden 1-3, 2B, 2 R; Bradley 1-3, BB, RBI, R.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-452-2345, ext. 5250 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
