PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles made the improbable possible at various points of its thrilling seven-run rally to beat North Kitsap 9-8 at Civic Field on Monday and claim the outright Olympic League 2A Division baseball championship and a bye in the first round of the West Central District Tournament.
“I’ll never forget this one,” Roughriders coach Karl Myers said of his first league championship as a head coach. “Down 7-0, holy cow… It’s awesome for these guys. From the time they first met in February they set three goals: win league, win districts and compete for a state title.”
Myers credited his team’s mental approach during the comeback.
“It’s confidence in your guys,” he said. “I have so much confidence in these guys. It’s hard because it’s what’s between your ears and not what’s in your hands.”
The Roughriders put three runs across in their last at-bat in the bottom of the seventh to cap the comeback. Port Angeles received crucial hits from Brody Merritt, pinch hitter Lucas Jarnagin and Joel Wood, with Bo Bradow’s two-out chopper to third base bringing home Wood with the winning run as Port Angeles pulled off the walk-off victory over the Vikings.
“Once they put the runs on we knew we had to chip away slowly,” Wood said. “We know we can’t score seven runs on one hit, so we had to take it slowly and battle our way back.”
Teams don’t often win baseball games when they spot opponents seven-run leads, especially when that opponent has an NCAA Division I-bound pitcher (Ryan Hecker) throwing smoke and piling up strikeouts in the early going.
If win probability graphs existed for prep sports like they do for pro sports, Port Angeles’ chances at a comeback win likely would have been in the low single digits when the Vikings chased Riders ace Colton McGuffey with a 7-0 lead and the bases loaded in the third inning.
But Port Angeles persevered. Reliever Brady Shimko came in and got North Kitsap’s No. 3 hitter Kyle Green to fly out to deep center field. Riders relievers Shimko, Ethan Flodstrom and Brody Merritt combined to allow just one run on one hit, two walks, a hit batter and one error in the remaining 4 1/3 innings to give Port Angeles’ hitters a chance.
“Brady got those couple of pitches that we needed to get out of the inning with the bases loaded,” Wood, the team’s catcher, said. “Ethan came in and did well and Brody shoved. He was throwing hard today and his curveball looked really good.”
Myers appreciated the way his relievers bore down on North Kitsap.
“All year long it’s been a staff effort,” Myers said. “Colton didn’t have his best stuff … and the other guys picked him up. Whether it’s Brady Shimko getting one out with the bases loaded, Ethan doing his job for an inning and a half and Brody shutting the door, that whole unit did a great job.”
The Riders responded in the home half of the third inning, taking advantage of some Vikings mistakes to trim three runs off the North Kitsap lead.
Port Angeles continued to get to Hecker in the fourth. Gavin Guerrero opened the inning by reaching base on a dropped third strike, and after a pair of walks to Carson Jackson and Ethan Flodstrom, McGuffey went the opposite way and deposited a two-out, two-RBI double down the right field-line to trail 7-5 and end the University of San Francisco-bound Hecker’s day on the hill.
“I was so proud of our guys for taking aggressive swings and not letting him dictate the tempo,” Myers said. “They did a great job of taking those aggressive swings and not being scared because it’s pretty easy when a kid is that good and [Hecker’s] very, very good. [He has] a good fastball and two very good breaking balls.”
A two-out RBI double by Tyler Bowen answered a Vikings run and brought the deficit back to 8-6 after five innings.
Merritt kept North Kitsap off-balance with his strong fastball and deceptive curve, and opened up the final frame by lacing a single to center field.
“Merritt was so big tonight, he’s a big-game pitcher,” Myers said. He comes in to those big games and wants the ball and nothing fazes him. He threw strikes, put that curve across. He was lights out. And at-bat, he got blew the away first couple of times and a kid like Hecker is going to do that. But he made an adjustment and shortened his swing a little bit and really focused on barreling the ball.”
Pinch-hitter Jarnagin drove in pinch-runner Hayden Woods with a double to deep left field.
“He’s had four varsity at-bats and he’s hit three towering fly balls,” Myers said. “I just kept telling him you’re going to stay through on one of these one of these days.”
A sacrifice bunt moved pinch runner Gavin Guerrero to third. But Guererro was thrown out at home on Carson Jackson’s grounder to third base.
“Guerrero, that was totally my fault, I was too excited and sent him,” Myers said. But Joel did a great job of picking me up after that mistake.”
With two outs and Jackson on first, Wood pounded a double down the left field-line to bring home the tying run.
“I just tried to put a good swing on the ball and make hard contact and see where it went,” Wood said. “I was feeling pretty good. I was seeing the ball pretty nice today.”
2-out RBI double by Joel Wood ties it up 8-all pic.twitter.com/TQ1YxeLbDd
— Michael Carman (@MikeCarmanPDN) May 1, 2018
Wood, who took a couple of knocks to the noggin earlier in the game — including foul tipping a ball off the earhole of his helmet and following with a single on the next pitch, moved to third and avoided the tag when Colton McGuffey reached on an error on a ball hit to third.
“It would have been so easy there [to give up], with a runner at first with two out, but Joel stuck with it and put a great swing on the ball,” Myers said.
Bradow hit a chopper to the third baseman who stumbled and was beat to the base by Flodstrom, as Wood raced home with the game-winning run.
Port Angeles wins Olympic League title, for rally from 7-0 deficit. Bradow chopper gets it done. No. 1 seed, bye to districts w win. pic.twitter.com/t7YVjyW2hM
— Michael Carman (@MikeCarmanPDN) May 1, 2018
“It was just one guy after another making plays,” Myers said.
The Riders (11-1, 15-3) host 3A Peninsula for a nonleague senior night contest at 4 p.m. today.
Port Angeles will open district tournament play at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. The Riders will face the winner of a game between the South Puget Sound League’s No. 5 and No. 7 teams. A win in that contest and Port Angeles will make the 16-team state tournament.
Port Angeles 9, North Kitsap 8
North Kitsap 0 3 4 0 1 0 0 — 8 7 3
Port Angeles 0 0 3 2 1 0 3 — 9 13 4
WP: Merritt LP: Richardson
Pitching
North Kitsap — Hecker 4IP, 5R, 3ER, 6H, 3BB, HB, 8K; Richardson 2 2/3IP, 4R, 3ER, 7H, BB, K.
Port Angeles — McGuffey 2 2/3IP, 7R, 4ER, 6H, 3BB, 2K; Shimko 1/3IP; Flodstrom 1 2/3IP, R, H, 2BB, HB, K; Merritt 2 1/3 IP, 0R, 0H, 4K.
Hitting
North Kitsap — Fisher 2-3, R, 3RBI; Robbins 1-2, 2R, 2BB, 2RBI; Klos 1-4, RBI.
Port Angeles — McGuffey 2-5, 2B, R, 3RBI; Merritt 2-4; Bowen 1-3, 2B, RBI; Jarnagin 1-1, 2B, RBI; Wood 3-4, 2B, 2R, RBI; Bowen 1-3, 2B, RBI; Jackson 1-4, 3B, BB, 3R; Bradow 2-4, RBI.
Dave Logan/for Peninsula Daily News Port Angeles’ Joel Wood, left, beats out the throw to North Kitsap first baseman Chris Schuchart for a base hit.
