PORT ANGELES — Distractions were all around for the Port Angeles baseball team — playing its first home game of the season at Civic Field, under the lights against rival Sequim on Salute to Youth Baseball night.
But the Roughriders tuned out all the noise, and led by senior pitcher Hayden Woods, turned in a focused performance in a 10-0 win over the Wolves in five innings Thursday night.
Woods went the distance, allowing just two hits, both to Sequim senior Joey Oliver, while striking out seven.
“Under the lights, home opener against our rival Sequim with all the [youth baseball] kids around, there was a little more adrenaline, that’s for sure,” Woods said.
With Woods dealing, the Wolves never got the baserunners they needed to play their preferred style of pressure on the basepaths.
Woods, who threw 42 strikes in his 59 pitches, credited getting first-pitch fastballs across from strikes and the Riders’ defense backing him up, for the strong outing.
“Fastballs, getting ahead in the counts and then just coming in with curveballs,” Woods said. “It was working all night, so I used that to my advantage.”
“Having a lockdown defense helped, too.”
Port Angeles coach Karl Myers was impressed by Woods’ play.
“It was a great opportunity for him to back up a great performance last Saturday when he was a tough-luck loser against [Lake Washington], probably one of the better teams he’s ever faced and we will see all year,” Myers said.
“So it was great to see him take that focus into a game with really high emotional [stakes]. It’s so easy to say it’s just another game, but it’s not. We don’t try to pull that with the kids, they know better, so it’s a huge game. What it comes down to is using the emotion the game creates and gives you, that added energy, and channeling that into your play and just focusing on doing your job.”
Woods did that on the mound and was backed up by solid plays in the field such as sophomore third baseman Wyatt Hall quickly ranging to his left to field and then throwing out a Sequim hitter. Or Tyler Bowen making a diving grab on a nicely-hit ball to center field.
And Woods was aided at the plate as well.
With one no-doubt-about-it swing of the bat, Port Angeles left fielder Ethan Flodstrom did all the damage the Riders would need offensively in his first trip to the plate, hitting a two-run home run to right field in the bottom of the first inning to stake Woods to a two-run lead.
“He’s had a really consistent start to the year, hitting balls hard,” Myers said of Flodstrom. “It was nice for him to finally get one up and run it out. He’s been all over baseballs. His timing is great, so it was just a matter of time for him.”
Bo Bradow had a nice at-bat for the Riders in the third, hitting a hard chopper for an RBI single.
Port Angeles eventually added four runs in the third and four more in the fifth, taking advantage of walks, passed balls and wild pitches and hit batters to end the game early.
Sequim coach Dave Ditlefsen said it will take a better performance to take down Port Angeles in the team’s next meeting April 19 in Sequim.
“We are going to have to play above our heads the way [Port Angeles] is built and we didn’t do that tonight,” he said. “We gave them a lot of baserunners, our pitchers weren’t really in the zone today, and we had four passed balls for runs right there, so we were not at our best today and they are a very good squad. We will regroup and come back and move forward.”
Ditlefsen agreed that Woods was on his game on the mound.
“We struggled at the plate today other than Joey Oliver,” Ditlefsen said.
“Hayden was very tough. He was getting his off-speed stuff for strikes, too. It’s hard to simulate that in practice, the kids don’t see that too much.”
Each team plays nonleague home games Saturday.
Port Angeles (2-0, 3-3) hosts the other Roughriders, Seattle’s Roosevelt, at 1 p.m. at Civic Field.
Sequim (1-2, 3-3) hosts Mount Tahoma also at 1 p.m.
Port Angeles 10, Sequim 0
SEQ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 2 0
PA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0— 10 4 0
WP: Woods LP: Pozernick
Pitching
Sequim — Pozernick 3IP, 3H, 6R, 3ER, 2BB, 2HB, 3K; Thomas IP, 4R, 3ER, 2BB, K; Young 0.1IP, H, BB.
Port Angeles — Woods 5IP, 2H, 7K.
Hitting
Sequim — Oliver 2-2.
Port Angeles — Flodstrom 1-1, BB, HBP, HR, 3R, 2RBI; B. Bradow 2-2, 2R; Whitman 0-2, BB, R, RBI; Bowen 1-3, SB, RBI; Guerrero 0-1, 2BB, 2R.
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Sports reporter/columnist Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
