PORT ANGELES — It was a windy and slightly weird ending to the Port Angeles baseball team’s regular season, but it ended with the Roughriders’ fifth straight victory, 7-6 over Kingston in nine innings, which allowed the Riders to finish all alone in third place in the Olympic League.
The Riders finished league play with a winning record of 8-6 after starting 2-4. After a 3-7-1 start to the season, the Riders will enter the postseason 9-10-1. The victory prevented the Riders from ending up in a three-way tie for third with Sequim and Olympic and likely helped the team’s postseason seeding.
Kingston had a lot to play for as the Bucs were fighting for a possible playoff spot. At 4-10 in league and in seventh place, it’s a longshot for Kingston to move on now.
“Kingston played hard, they kept us off-balance. They played loose,” said Port Angeles coach Zac Moore.
Moore said the team isn’t focused on the winning streak going in to the playoffs.
“The only thing that matters is the next pitch,” he said.
Senior Alex Angevine, moving on to Western Oregon University next year, played his final home regular-season game for the Riders. He has been a huge part of the program for four years now. He contributed a scorching triple, two stolen bases and two tough innings pitched in the eighth and ninth, getting out of jams in both innings.
“I’m trying to be a leader of this team,” Angevine said.
Blustery winds
The game was played in heavy gusts that definitely affected some of the fly balls, though, as usual, the Riders played solid defense, making just one error.
Port Angeles finished its season with a Kody Williams no-hitter Tuesday against Kingston in a 7-0 win. Wednesday’s game was a much more difficult victory as Kingston got up 6-3 early.
Angevine got one run back in the fifth when he smoked a ball to deep left field. It appeared the Kingston outfielder might have lost the ball in the harsh early evening sun, but Moore said that was a no-doubt triple.
“It hopped the fence. Alex hit the snot out of it.”
Angevine easily came in to score on a Josiah Gooding groundout to make it 6-4.
Kingston went in to the bottom of the seventh still up by two runs. The Riders used patience at the plate to score a pair of runs in the seventh to force extra innings. Williams, Jordan Shumway and Trae Hanan all walked to load the bases.
Pinch runner Ian Smithson alertly scored from third on a wild pitch, while Shumway moved up to third. Brandt Perry hit a shallow fly ball to center that shouldn’t have been deep enough to score Shumway, but the Kingston throw to the catcher was way up the first-base line and no one covered home plate. Shumway came in to tie the game at 6-6.
Angevine came in to pitch the eighth. Kingston got runners on at first and third and one out, but Gooding made a great play on a grounder to third, holding the runner on the bag and throwing out the batter. Angevine finished the inning with a strikeout.
In the bottom of the eighth, Angevine got on via a walk, stole second, then went to third on a bad throw. The Riders are usually excellent at the suicide squeeze, but Gooding popped the ball up as Angevine broke home and he was easily doubled up on a throw to third.
Again, Kingston got two runners on in the ninth inning, but Angevine, who was only supposed to pitch one inning, got a popup and a lineout to Nate Basden at second.
The bottom of the ninth got interesting. Williams got on base on an error. Shumway laid down a sac bunt to move Williams to second.
After Rylan Politika was hit by a pitch, Hanan hit a slow grounder to shortstop for a potential inning-ending double play. Politika was thrown out at second, but Hanan beat the throw to first to keep the inning alive. With Kingston players distracted and not paying attention, Williams alertly came all the way home from second base to score, winning the game.
“We kind of went back door there,” Moore said.
Port Angeles is scheduled to host a playoff game at Civic Field at 4 p.m. Monday, likely as a No. 6 or No. 7 seed in the district tournament.
Politika finished 2-for-4 with a double, while Williams was 2-for-4 and Perry had two RBIs.
The Riders used six pitchers, saving arms for their playoff game Monday.
Port Angeles 7, Kingston 6
King. 0 1 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 — 6 11 3
PA 0 3 0 0 1 0 2 0 1 — 7 9 1
Pitching
Port Angeles — Martin IP, H, K; Grice 1.2 IP, H, K; Stratford 1.1 IP, H, 2 ER, K; Boulden-Davis IP, 3 ER, K; Politika 2 IP, 2 H, ER, 3 K; Angevine 2 IP, 4 H, K.
Hitting
Port Angeles — Williams 2-4, R, Shumway 1-3, 2 R; Politika 2-4, 2B, R; Perry 1-3, 2 RBI, Angevine 1-3, 3B, R, 2 BB, 2 SB.
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Sports Editor Pierre LaBossiere can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or sports@peninsuladailynews.com.
