VANCOUVER, Wash. — Wilder Baseball started fast and didn’t look back.
The area team smashed Granite Construction 12-2 in five innings to improve to 2-0 at the Senior Babe Ruth Pacific Northwest regional tournament at Vern Kindsfather Field.
Wilder got the rout off to a quick start with eight hits and eight runs in the first inning.
“We put pressure on them right out of the gate,” Wilder coach Mike Politika said, “and I don’t think they knew what hit them.”
Dusty Bates led off the bottom of the first inning with a hard-hit single and added another hit in the inning to jump-start the Wilder offense. Bates also scored two runs.
Brady Konopaski, Larsson Chapman, Evan Hurn and Tanner Rhodefer also had two hits apiece for Wilder, which finished with 12 hits.
Wilder ace Nick Johnston allowed hits to the first two batters for Granite Construction, which hails from the nearby Camas-Washougal area.
Johnston survived the inning and only gave up one more hit in his four innings of work.
“Nick did really well,” Politika said. “The first two batters got hits, but he settled down from there.
“They were on their toes.”
Wilder added two runs in the second and another in the third before ending the game by mercy rule by scoring with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Wilder (23-6) is scheduled to have a day off today, but may end up playing the Idaho state champion if Wednesday’s late game was rained out as were a few games earlier in the day.
Wilder 12, Granite Construction 2
Granite Construction 0 0 0 0 2 — 2 5 2
Wilder 8 2 1 0 1 — 12 12 2
WP- Johnston
Pitching Statistics
Wilder: Johnston 4 IP, 5 K, 3 H, 0 BB; Mudd IP, H, 2 BB, 2 R, 0 ER.
Hitting Statistics
Wilder: Bates 2-4, 2 R; Wright 1-4, RBI; Konopaski 2-4, 2 R, RBI; Chapman 2-4, 2B, 2 R, RBI; Paynter 1-2, 2 R, RBI; Hurn 2-2, 2 RBI; Crawford 1-3, 2B, RBI; Rhodefer 2-2, 2 RBI, R.