By Michael Carman
Peninsula Daily News
AUBURN — Port Angeles held the lead late, but stumbled in the sixth inning and was eliminated from the Class 2A State Baseball Tournament in a 3-2 loss to Sehome on Saturday at Auburn High School.
Up 2-1 through five innings, Roughriders’ starter Brody Merritt allowed a leadoff double to right-centerfield to his counterpart, Mariners’ pitcher Jacob Kaepernick to open the sixth.
One out later, Sehome senior Makana Grondin got hold of a Merritt pitch and sent it over the wall in left for a two-run home run to take the lead.
Port Angeles opened the bottom of the seventh with a pinch-hit single by Tanner Lunt, but base runner Wyatt Hall was stranded at second on back-to-back groundouts by seniors Joel Wood and Gavin Guerrero to end the game and the season for the Olympic League and West Central District-champion Riders (19-5).
Port Angeles took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Lucas Jarnagin tripled and came home on a Kaepernick balk.
Sehome tied it up in the fourth when Kaepernick led off with a single and courtesy runner Brooks Frere moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and third on a passed ball.
Frere scored on Grondin’s RBI single to right field to knot the score at 1-1.
The Riders loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth but Kaepernick got the ground ball out he needed to strand all three runners.
Port Angeles regained the lead when Joel Wood singled to open the fifth and moved to third when Guerrero’s sacrifice bunt attempt was thrown into right field by the Sehome catcher.
Ethan Flodstrom drove in Wood on a sacrifice fly, but a double play ended the Port Angeles threat.
In the sixth, Jarnagin singled for his third hit of the game and pinch runner Daniel Basden stole second but slid past the bag on the artificial turf infield and was called out for running out of the baseline.
Sehome 3, Port Angeles 2
Sehome 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 — 3 9 1
PA 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 — 2 7 1
WP: Kaepernick LP: Merritt
Pitching
Sehome — Kaepernick 7IP, 7H, 2R, ER, BB, 5K.
Port Angeles — Merritt 6IP, 7H, 3R, 2ER, BB, 6K; Woods IP, 2H.
Hitting
Sehome — Grondin 2-3, HR, R, 3RBI; Kaepernick 2-3, 2B, R.
Port Angeles — Jarnagin 3-3, R.; Lunt 1-1; Wood 1-2, R; Flodstrom 0-1, SF, RBI; Bradow 1-3; Bowen 1-2.
