PORT ANGELES — Wilder Baseball has yet to hits its stride at the 13th annual Dick Brown Memorial Firecracker Classic.
And yet, the All-Stars have yet to drop a game either.
Wilder edged out the Kitsap American Juniors 7-4 on Saturday night to move within a win of reaching the tournament championship.
Brian Senf gave up just one run in five strong innings on the mound, and Cole Uvila knocked in three runs at the plate as Wilder (7-7 overall) overcame four errors to earn its second straight home win.
A day before, Wilder topped the Victoria Mariners 9-6 despite another three fielding errors.
“The nice thing is we’re not playing real good, but we’re winning,” Wilder coach Rob Merritt said. “That’ better than losing. I just told them [after Saturday’s win], ‘Hey we need to relax a little bit and go out and have fun.”
Wilder can clinch a spot in the championship game with a win tonight against Sequim Baseball at 7 p.m.
The Senior Babe Ruth Baseball squad could also move on with a loss if its run differential ends up being better than Sequim’s.
“We’re not here for run differential,” Merritt said. “We want to win.”
Wilder started out Saturday night’s game with a bang in the top of the first inning.
Austin McConnell came up with a two-out RBI single, and Uvila followed with a two-run base hit to give Wilder an early 3-0 lead. With Senf keeping the Kitsap bats at bay, the All-Stars maintained that lead until scoring in the fourth and the fifth for a 5-0 edge.
“This is only his third outing of the year [because of a back injury] and he had much better timing a little more zip on it,” Merritt said. “He did a good job.”
Kitsap finally got to Senf with a run in the bottom of the fifth, chasing the Port Angeles right-hander, then scored three runs an inning later on four Wilder errors.
The All-Star were able to hang on from there, however, with McConnell closing the door in the seventh inning for the save.
“We’ll be OK, we just gotta go relax and play the game the way it’s supposed to be played,” Merritt said.
“The effort is there, but I think mentally, it’s a little bit of a grind [right now].”
Friday’s game wasn’t quite as close as the score appeared, given that the Victoria Mariners scored four of its six runs in the top of the seventh inning.
Before that, the Wilder punished Mariners pitching with a pair of four-run frames in the third and sixth innings.
The first four-run explosion was fueled by back-to-back Wilder home runs, starting with a three-run shot to right center from Isaac Yamamoto and ending with a solo bomb from Easton Napiontek.
Cody Sullivan was also 4-for-4 at the plate with a double, triple, RBI and three runs scored.
Uvila earned the win on the mound, giving up just one run and one hit in 4 1/3 innings while striking out three and walking three.
Wilder 7, Kitsap Amer. Juniors 4
Wilder 3 0 0 1 1 0 1 — 7 9 4
Kitsap 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 — 4 4 2
WP- Senf (1-0); LP- Straight; SV- McConnell
Pitching Statistics
Wilder: Senf 5IP, 2H, R, 3K; Crain IP, 3R, 0ER; McConnell IP.
Hitting Statistics
Wilder: Yamamoto 2-4 (2B, RBI); Napiontek 1-1 (2B, 3BB, R); Uvila 2-3 (3RBI).
Wilder 9, Victoria Mariners 6
Victoria 0 0 0 0 2 0 4 — 6 3 0
Wilder 1 0 4 0 0 4 0 — 9 10 3
WP- Uvila (2-0); LP- Holt
Pitching Statistics
Victoria: Holt 4IP.
Wilder: Uvila 4.1IP, ER, H, 3BB, 2HBP, 3K; Crain 0.1IP, R, 3BB, HBP, K; Sullivan 2.1IP, 2ER, 4R, 2H, 3BB, 5K.
Hitting Statistics
Wilder: Sullivan 4-4 (3R, RBI, 2B, 3B); Yamamoto 1-2 (2BB, HR, 3RBI, R); Napiontek 1-3 (HR, RBI); Gouge 1-3 (2B, 2RBI, R).
