PORT ANGELES — Wilder Baseball picked up wins in two of three contests over the weekend at Civic Field.
The North Olympic Peninsula Senior Babe Ruth team bounced back from an 8-0 shutout loss to the Columbia River Pilots Saturday, to beat the Victoria Eagles by scores of 9-1 and 4-1 Sunday.
Columbia River pitcher Kaden Vanderwerth shut down the Wilder bats, tossing a complete-game three-hit shutout.
“He did excellent,” Wilder coach Mike Politika said.
“I want to say he’s just a sophomore in high school, but he showed great command of his fastball and his off-speed pitches.
“We were just baffled all game. We made him look pretty good.”
Then the rains came, washing out Wilders’ second scheduled contest Saturday.
“The Civic grounds crew did a great job getting the field ready for us for Sunday morning,” Politika said.
In Sunday’s opening game, Wilder took advantage of Victoria’s wild pitching, as three players were hit by pitches to reach base in a six-run bottom of the first inning.
Travis Paynter’s line-drive RBI single to left field scored Tanner Gochnour, and Anders Chapman later reached base on a two-run single to score Paynter and Chance Wilson.
“He gave us some free bases and we got some hits and some guys came up with some RBIs,” Politika said.
“The early lead definitely helped set the tone for the day.”
Grubb gets strikeouts
James Grubb went three strong innings on the mound, allowing no hits, walks or runs and striking out six.
“He has definitely been pitching well for us,” Politika said.
“He’s dialed in and has been really tough to hit.
“James has shown good command on his fastball and he gets a lot of swinging strikes.
Curan Bradley went the final four frames, allowing one run on five hits and two walks, while striking out five.
Grubb opened Sunday’s second game with Victoria with a single.
He later stole third and scored on a single to right field by Eathen Boyer.
Chapman added a bunt single to score Bradley, who had previously reached base on a walk.
Boyer then came home on an error in center field on a fly ball hit by Wilson.
“We had some bunt situations that we took advantage of, had some stolen bases and played a little small ball,” Politika said.
“Their starter wasn’t a bad pitcher, so took advantage of a couple mistakes and pushed the base runners around.”
Boyer later added a two-out line drive double to left field to score Bradley and give Wilder an insurance run in the bottom of the third.
Travis Paynter earned the win on the mound for Wilder, striking out four while allowing no runs on two hits in three innings of work.
Tanner Rhodefer struck out three in two innings pitched and Ryan Rodocker also went two innings for Wilder.
Wilder will be in action at the USSSA state tournament in Olympia beginning Friday.
Sunday’s Second Game
Wilder 4, Eagles 1
Eagles 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 1 7 1
Wilder 3 0 0 0 0 0 x — 4 6 1
WP- Paynter
Pitching Statistics
Wilder: Paynter 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 4 K; Rhodefer 2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K; Rodocker 2 IP, 2 H, R, 3 BB, K.
Hitting Statistics
Wilder: Boyer 2-3, 2B, R, 2 RBI; Chapman 1-3, RBI; SB; Bradley 1-2, BB, 2 R, 2 SB
Sunday’s First Game
Wilder 9, Eagles 1
Eagles 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 — 1 5 2
Wilder 6 0 0 0 0 2 x — 9 12 3
WP- Grubb
Pitching Statistics
Wilder: Grubb 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, BB, 6 K; Bradley 4 IP, 5 H, R, 2 BB, 5 K.
Hitting Statistics
Wilder: Paynter 2-4, R, 3 RBI; Rhodefer 3-3, 2B, 2 R, SB; Chapman 2-2, 2 RBI;
Saturday’s Game
Columbia River Pilots 8, Wilder 0
Pilots 0 1 3 1 1 0 2 — 8 10 1
Wilder 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 3 3
WP- Vanderwerth; LP- Pederson
Pitching Statistics
Pilots: Vanderwerth 7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K.
Wilder: Pederson 4 IP, 8 H, 5 R, ER, 2 BB, 3 K; Shimko 3 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K.
Hitting Statistics
Pilots: Olson 2-4, 2B, R; St. Jean 1-4, 2 RBI; McDaniel 1-3, 2B, R.
Wilder: Hurn 1-3; Hendry 1-2, SB; Grubb 1-3.
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Compiled using team reports.
