EPHRATA — A road weary Wilder Baseball squad had its season cut short in Thursday’s consolation bracket final at the Babe Ruth 16-18-year-old state tournament.
The North Olympic Peninsula all-stars survived to play four games at the double-elimination tournament, despite dropping their first round game on Tuesday.
After beating Kent No. 2 13-6 in the consolation semifinals Thursday afternoon, Wilder turned around and lost 8-5 to Moses Lake that night.
The loss not only ended Wilder’s season, but also a near two-week road trip that spanned several hundred miles and included several days with temperatures in the 90s.
“When it was all said and done, you look back, and we were pooped,” Wilder coach Rob Merritt said.
“We’d been on the road for nine days straight. It took its toll on the coaching staff, on the kids . . . everybody.
“It wasn’t planned that way, but they moved the state tournament up two days [because of conflict with other events in the Ephrata area].”
Wilder finished 2-2 at state, the same record it posted last summer, and 25-10 overall.
“I really felt like the kids gave the coaching staff every little ounce they had,” Merritt said.
“After the game [Thursday night] even the announcers were saying, ‘Give a hand to Wilder Baseball. What a classy club.'”
Wilder won a pair of loser-out games to get to Thursday’s consolation final against the Moses Lake Riverdogs. That included the 13-6 drubbing of Kent No. 2 just hours earlier.
That win gave Wilder a shot at revenge against the host Riverdogs.
Moses Lake had beaten Wilder 4-3 in the opening round Tuesday.
Yet the Riverdogs followed the same formula — namely, rallying from a 3-0 deficit — to beat Wilder again on Thursday.
The turning point came during the bottom of the third inning, when Moses Lake tagged Wilder starting pitcher A.J. Konopaski for back-to-back home runs to tie the score at 3.
Konopaski responded with a solo shot of his own in the top of the fourth, but Moses Lake came back with four more runs in the bottom half to take a 7-4 lead.
Wilder got as close as 7-5 in the fifth but could never rally all the way back.
The Riverdogs finished with 16 hits in the game against Konopaski and Wilder reliever Spencer Middleton.
If not for a few slick double plays from the Wilder infield, Moses Lake might have blown the game open, Merritt said.
“They hit the ball really well,” he said. “We tell our guys to pitch to contact all year, [and] A.J. had good stuff. He said he felt really good.
“It was just one of those times where they hit you.”
It was Wilder’s bats that were on fire earlier in the day again Kent No. 2.
The team rattled off 16 hits, including seven during a nine-run first inning, to easily dispatch the suburban Seattle squad.
Easton Napiontek was 3-for-4 with three RBIs, two runs and a double, while Austin McConnell was 3-for-4 with two runs and an RBI.
Cody Sullivan and Brandon Bancroft added two hits apiece for Wilder.
Ryan Aumock earned the win on the mound, with three strikeouts, fours hits and a walk in 4 2/3 innings pitched.
Aumock is one of 14 players expected to return to next year’s squad. (Only Augie Konopaski, Alex Gillis, Trevor Drake and Middleton will move on.)
The 2011 team will also have the luxury of avoiding state next summer since it automatically qualifies for the regional tournament as hosts.
“We thought maybe we’d have a shot at the state championship [this year]. We were in the thick of it,” Merritt said of his third-place squad.
“It was fun a good group of kids.
“I think the future looks bright.”
WILDER 13, KENT NO. 2 6
Wilder 9 1 0 0 1 0 2 – 13 16 3
Kent 2 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 — 6 8 3
WP- Ryan Aumock (2-0); LP- Snure
Pitching Statistics
Wilder: McCartney 2.1IP (6R, 4ER, 4hits, 2BB, HBP, 3K); Aumock 4.2IP (0ER, 4hits, BB, 3K).
Kent: Snure 2+IP.
Hitting Statistics
Wilder: Sullivan 2-5 (R, 2RBI); Napiontek 3-4 (2R, 3RBI, 2B); Bancroft 2-3 (2R); McConnell 3-4 (2R, RBI).
Kent: Bannister 3-4.
MOSES LAKE 8, WILDER 5
Wilder 2 1 0 1 1 0 0 – 5 6 1
Moses Lake 0 0 3 4 0 1 0 — 8 16 1
WP- Yada; LP- A.J. Konopaski (5-2)
Pitching Statistics
Wilder: A.J. Konopaski 4IP (7ER, 12hits, 0BB, 3K); Middleton 2IP (ER, 4hits, HBP, 2K).
Moses Lake: Yada 6IP.
Hitting Statistics
Wilder: A.J. Konopaski 1-3 (HR, RBI), Augie Konopaski 2-2 (2B, RBI).