PORT ANGELES — Attaining a simple goal provided a big payoff for the Port Townsend baseball team.
Jacob King hit a grounder toward second base and hustled down the line to make it to first safely. An overthrow by Port Angeles allowed two runners to score and tie the game in the top of the seventh inning.
The Redskins added two more runs for a come-from-behind 5-3 road win over the Roughriders at Volunteer Field.
“I’ve had a goal all season to hit a grounder to second and beat it out, so I finally did that,” King said after Friday’s game.
“That’s been my goal all season. I’ve almost done it twice, and I finally got it today.
“I can retire now,” he said with a laugh.
King also earned the win by pitching all seven innings for Port Townsend, striking out four and scattering nine hits.
Port Angeles broke a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the sixth when Jordan Shepherd tripled to bring home Larsson Chapman and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Mudd.
That made the score 3-1 going into the last inning.
Port Townsend’s Jeff Seton opened the seventh with a deep double, his second of the game.
Joe Hoffman followed with his third single of the game and took second when the Roughriders missed the cutoff man in an apparent attempt to get Seton at home, but Seton was held at third.
It was the first of a series of costly mistakes by Port Angeles in the top of the seventh.
“Some of them are young and they force stuff that they don’t need to force,” Riders coach Vic Reykdal said.
“I mean, there’s a time right then maybe just to play for the next out. And then they compound it by making a couple [other bad] throws.”
Seton and Hoffman both scored when King was safe at first to make it 3-3 with only one out.
“Jeff had a deep bomb and that kind of sparked everybody up, Joe’s been hitting great this season, I hit a blooper that I beat out,” King said.
“It was a great team win.”
King stole second base and Jacob Ralls walked.
King then attempted to steal third. Port Angeles catcher Austin Roberson’s throw got past Mudd, allowing King to jump to his feet and score the go-ahead run.
“That’s just stuff lining up. I mean, there’s nothing I can take credit for. That’s just the way it worked out,” King said of his adventure on the base paths.
Ralls went to third base on the play and came home on a sacrifice ground out by Cody Russell, giving Port Townsend a 5-3 lead.
“We’re an OK base-running team,” Redskins coach Tom Webster said.
“We were picking up extra bases, and I don’t think they usually throw the ball around like that. And that hurt them, but they don’t normally do that.”
In the bottom of the seventh, the Riders loaded the bases with two-out hits by Jace Bohman and Chapman and an intentional walk by Shepherd.
“We’re just going to walk Shepherd because first base is open, and it’s because he’s a really good hitter,” Webster said.
“And then, you know, [try to] get the ground ball and get out of there.”
King ended the game by getting Eathen Boyer to ground out to third baseman Sean Dwyer.
“King pitched really well. He’s capable of doing that and this is his second consecutive outing that he’s thrown well, and so he’s starting to come on,” Webster said.
“PA’s got some dangerous hitters; we kept them in the park today. Jacob threw well, he was hitting his spots.”
Logan Ciaciuch, Chapman and Matt Hendry each had two hits for Port Angeles, and the Riders out-hit the Redskins 9-7.
But Reykdal said his team still struggles to come up with timely hits, something that wasn’t helped by Wednesday’s postponed game against North Mason, meaning it had been a week since the Riders faced live pitching.
“Again, we didn’t string a whole lot together,” he said. “We just don’t seem to be making real good contact.”
Sophomore Travis Paynter started and had a solid outing for Port Angles, striking out nine in 6 1/3 innings.
Both teams’ postseason hopes are fading.
Port Angeles (4-7, 4-8) has fallen from the middle of the Olympic League to seventh place.
“That might slam the door on us right there. There’s some guys in the middle who are climbing fast,” Reykdal said of Friday’s loss.
“We’re going to play for a little pride now. We get Sequim on Monday, so that’s a great chance to get back in the winning ways and get a good win.”
Friday’s win was Port Townsend’s (1-10, 3-10) first in the Olympic League this season.
The Redskins need to finish seventh to set up a 1A district play-in game with the Nisqually League. They are three games behind the Riders for seventh with five league games left.
They host Olympic (7-5, 8-6) on Monday.
Port Townsend 5, Port Angeles 3
Port Townsend 0 0 0 0 1 0 4 — 6 7 2
Port Angeles 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 — 3 9 3
WP- King; LP- Paynter
Pitching Statistics
Port Townsend: King 7 IP, 9 H, 3 ER, BB, 4 K.
Port Angeles: Paynter 6 1/3 IP, 7 H, 3 BB, 9 K; Shepherd 2/3 IP.
Hitting Statistics
Port Townsend: Seton 2-3, 2 2B, 2 R; Hoffman 3-3, R; King 1-4, R, 2 RBI, 2 SB; Dwyer 1-3, SB.
Port Angeles: Ciaciuch 2-4, 3B, R; Chapman 2-4, 2B, R, RBI; Hendry 2-3; Shepherd 1-3, 3B, R, RBI; Mudd 1-2, RBI; Bohman 1-4.
