PORT ANGELES — Pitcher Travis Paynter worked the edges of the plate consistently in a complete-game victory for Port Angeles, tallying 11 strikeouts as the Roughriders edged rival Sequim 4-2 at Civic Field.
“When I came in I was pretty focused,” Paynter said of Monday’s game.
“I was hitting the corners with my fastball, and the umpire was giving us a pretty big strike zone so that helped a lot with my pitches on the outside corners.”
Paynter went the full seven innings, allowing four hits and one walk, in a precise and controlled performance.
Two of the hits were bunts, another an infield single.
“He’s getting some work and it shows,” Port Angeles manager Vic Reykdal said.
“He’s better with work. That first month he didn’t get too many innings.
“He’s 3-0 and won all three league games for us, so you can’t beat that.”
The Wolves didn’t manage a hit to the outfield until Nigel Christian’s two-run triple with two outs in Sequim’s final time at-bat in the top of the seventh inning.
“I told Vic, we haven’t seen everybody yet, but he’s the toughest pitcher we’ve seen this year,” Wolves manager Dave Ditlefsen said.
“He was dealing and throwing strike one, strike two, and we were behind in the count all game.
“They played very well behind him defensively. Their defense made all the plays and did what they needed to do.”
The Riders looked to have gotten on the scoreboard first in the bottom of the second.
Tanner Gochnour singled sharply to center field off Sequim starter Tanner Rhodefer and then stole second base.
Left-handed batter Ben Basden then poked a shot in between left field and shortstop and Gochnour appeared to have scored but was called out for missing home plate after a delay.
After three perfect innings from Paynter, Dusty Bates and Evan Hurn reached base for the Wolves with well-executed bunts down the third-base line.
“Those were perfect,” Reykdal said.
“I’m not sure [third baseman] Matt [Hendry] could have gotten those guys out even if he’d been charging hard.”
Sequim had runners at the corners with one out, but Port Angeles catcher Ricky Crawford teamed with shortstop Noah McGoff to catch Hurn stealing at second. That was followed by Paynter striking out Daniel Harker to end the threat.
“We really only had one inning earlier where we had opportunities, otherwise Paynter was shutting us down,” Ditlefsen said.
The pitchers’ duel between Paynter and Rhodefer continued into the bottom of the fifth.
“He’s a crafty pitcher,” Reykdal said of the left-handed Rhodefer.
“For a little guy he has some good pop. Every now and then he’ll blow one by you.”
Patience at the plate was key to the Riders’ offensive output.
After two Rhodefer strikeouts to open the frame, Curran Bradley, Port Angeles’ No. 9 hitter, worked the count for a hard-earned walk, and moved on to second base after bad pickoff throw.
Bradley moved to third on a passed ball and came home after Wolves catcher Jake Sparks overthrew third base.
Jace Bohman then walked and reached second on another passed ball and scored on an Eathen Boyer RBI single to put the Riders up 2-0.
Port Angeles added two more runs in the bottom of the sixth.
Gochnour reached base on an error, and after retiring two batters, Rhodefer appeared to tire, giving up back-to-back walks to Basden and Bradley to load the bases.
Bohman then battled back from an 0-2 count to slice a two-run double down the third-base line.
“He throws his heart into it,” Ditlefsen said of Rhodefer.
“He had a little trouble with the lefties at the bottom of their lineup . . . And if you get base runners on, things change, and they got that big hit to score two more.”
Rhodefer allowed four hits and five walks with six strikeouts in his 5 2/3 innings of work.
After Bohman’s double, Ditlefsen went to speak with the home plate umpire.
“I don’t have the angle on it, from my angle [across the diamond from the play], but it looked 3 or 4 inches foul, but he’s got the angle and he said fair,” Ditlefsen said.
Reykdal, coaching third base during the play, had an eyewitness view of the hit.
“It bounced fair on the other side,” Reykdal said.
“That was a good call, that was why I was waving them home.”
Paynter nearly came through with a shutout, but allowed a leadoff walk in the top of the seventh to Austin Hilliard and, after two outs, an infield single to James Grubb.
Christian, who allowed a home run to Paynter while both were playing for opposing Wilder baseball teams last summer, turned the tables on his counterpart, blasting a two-run triple to deep right center.
“Last summer, Nigel gave me a pitch up high and I hit that home run,” Paynter said.
“And same thing to him today, I put one up high and once he hit it I knew it was going pretty far.”
Paynter finished strong, striking out pinch hitter Brady Vig to seal the game.
Reykdal had plenty of praise for his team after the game.
“It’s a really good win for us,” Reykdal said.
“We made a couple of base running errors that hurt us that we can work on.
“But the young kids in the middle, Ben Basden at second and Noah McGoff at short, did a really good job of stepping into the lineup.”
Port Angeles 4, Sequim 2
Sequim 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 — 2 4 4
Port Angeles 0 0 0 0 2 2 x — 4 4 0
WP- Travis Paynter; LP- Tanner Rhodefer
Pitching Statistics
Sequim: Rhodefer 5 2/3 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 6 K; Gavin Velarde 1/3 IP, BB.
Port Angeles: Paynter 7 IP, 4 H, 2 R, BB, 11 K.
Hitting Statistics
Sequim: Nigel Christian 1-3, 3B, 2 RBI; Evan Hurn 1-2, Bates 1-3, James Grubb 1-3.
Port Angeles: Jace Bohman 1-3, 2B, 2 RBI, R; Eathen Boyer 1-3, RBI; Curran Bradley 2 BB, R; Ben Basden 1-2, BB, R.
