PORT ANGELES — Eight Port Angeles seniors, some of whom have been playing baseball with and against each other for 10 years, were honored on senior night, and treated their home fans to a 5-0 win over Kingston that was a lot tighter than the final score shows.
Wednesday’s game was the Roughriders’ 11th win in a row.
The contest was a nail-biting pitchers’ duel until the bottom of the sixth inning, when Port Angeles broke through for four runs thanks to a couple of timely singles and well-placed bunts.
The Riders’ Hayden Woods, Seth Scofield and Brody Merritt pitched a four-hit gem, outdueling the Buccaneers’ Jack Hermanson, who pitched a whale of a game himself.
The win keeps the Riders unbeaten and alone in first place (9-0 in Olympic League 2A division, 13-3 overall), one game ahead of North Kitsap, which refuses to go away.
The Vikings have only one loss in league — and that was a 2-1 defeat to Port Angeles. The Riders and Vikings meet again at 4:15 p.m. Monday at Civic field with a possible league title on the line.
A league championship is definitely a goal for the Riders, but coach Karl Myers stresses that the team takes one game at a time and not get ahead of itself.
“We’re focused on the game at hand,” Myers said.
And making a lot of noise in their final year playing Port Angeles ball is a big deal for seniors Daniel Basden, Gavin Guerrero, Joel Wood, Woods, Bo Bradow, Jadon Seibel, Scofield and Andrew Pena.
While the Riders stress playing one game at a time, Bradow admitted that the team is thinking not only of a league championship, but doing a lot of damage in the playoffs.
“Guys are going all out in our last season,” Bradow said. “We’ve put in a ton of work. Guys were putting in work three months before the season started.”
“We’ve been playing together since we were eight or nine years old,” said Basden.
Bradow said the natural rivalry is with Sequim, but that the Riders have developed an intense rivalry with North Kitsap, with Port Angeles wresting the league championship from the Vikings with a dramatic come-from-behind win in the regular-season finale last season.
Back to Wednesday’s win, the Riders broke through for a run immediately in the first inning. Guerrero walked, then Bradow rapped a sharp single up the middle to send Guerrero to second. Milo Whitman loaded the bases, getting on base when a little nubber he hit was bobbled by Kingston. Basden then drove in Guerrero with a bases-loaded walk.
It looked like that one run was going to have to hold up for the entire game as Hermanson kept the Riders in check over the next five innings. Port Angeles got two runners on base in the third inning, but couldn’t break through for a run as Ethan Flodstrom was thrown out trying to steal home. Hermanson went five innings and gave up no earned runs on four hits and three walks.
“Hermanson is one of the better guys in the league. He always goes up against the good teams. Today, he was on,” Myers said.
Myers said that while Hermanson had the Riders contained, he preaches to the players not to get frustrated. He said the Riders are a very experienced team with a lot of confidence to win a close game against a tough pitcher.
“The game is hard enough, you don’t have to make it harder by pressing,” he said.
Meanwhile, Woods and Scofield were mowing down Buccaneers themselves, matching Hermanson’s gem. Woods went the first three innings, giving up three hits and no walks, while striking out three. Scofield was even better, going three innings, giving up no hits and one walk while striking out four.
“Seth was phenomenal,” Myers said.
“We like competition. We do our best in tough games,” Basden said.
How good were Woods, Scofield and Merritt? They combined for 101 pitches, 71 of them strikes.
In the sixth inning, with Hermanson taken out of the game, the Riders finally managed to break through for some runs. Basden led off the inning with a single against new pitcher Garrett Sitting Dog. Woods and Basden executed a perfect hit-and-run with Basden breaking for second and Woods hitting a grounder through the empty infield on the right side for a single.
With Basden on third, Pena bunted on a suicide squeeze and Basden just beat the throw to the plate for a run. Scofield made a perfect bunt for a single to load the bases and Wood drove in a run with a walk to make it 3-0.
Guerrero added an RBI single and another run scored on a Kingston dropped ball off a pop up by Bradow. With a comfortable 5-0 lead, Merritt came in to pitch the seventh inning, striking out two to complete the shutout.
Port Angeles next plays at Olympic (4-6, 7-10) on Friday before Monday’s huge game with North Kitsap.
Port Angeles 5, Kingston 0
KING 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 4 1
PA 1 0 0 0 0 4 x— 5 8 3
WP: Woods LP: Hermanson
Pitching
Kignston — Hermanson 5IP, 4H, 0ER, 2K, 3BB; Sitting Dog 1IP 4H, 3ER, BB.
Port Angeles — Woods 3IP, 3H, 0ER, 3K, 0BB; Scofield 3IP, 0H, 0ER, 4K, BB; Merritt 1IP, H, 2K, 0ER, 0BB.
Hitting
Kingston — Hermanson 2-3
Port Angeles — Bradow 2-4, RBI; Guerrero 1-3, R, RBI, BB; Basden 1-2, R, RBI, BB; Wood 0-1, R, RBI, 2BB, HBP; Woods 1-3, R; Pena 0-3, R, RBI.
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Sports Editor Pierre LaBossiere can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or plabossiere@peninsuladailynews.com.
Port Angeles first baseman Bo Bradow holds up the ball in an attempt to catch Kingston baserunner Terefa Rutherford off the bag in the third inning on Wednesday at Port Angeles Civic Field. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
Port Angeles’ Hayden Woods pitches in the opening inning of Wednesday’s game against Kingston at Port Angeles Civic Field. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
