PORT ANGELES — Ace Easton Napiontek went the distance, striking out nine in seven innings, to spark Port Angeles to a crucial 8-1 baseball victory over Bremerton.
That sets up a showdown today for second place in the Olympic League between the Roughriders and their archrival, Sequim.
The two teams play at Civic Field starting at 4 p.m.
If the Wolves win, it will create a tie for second.
A Riders victory would give Port Angeles second outright and a shot at a share for first if league-leading North Kitsap loses its final two games.
The Knights, meanwhile, beat the Roughriders 7-3 behind their ace, Eli Fultz (7-0), on Friday in a regularly scheduled Olympic League game at Bremerton, and then the Riders turned around and smashed the Knights 8-1 in a makeup game at Civic Field on Saturday behind their ace, Napiontek (4-1).
North Kitsap (11-3 league, 12-5 overall) clinched at least a tie for the league title after beating Olympic 7-1 on Saturday.
It’s the fourth year in a row that the Vikings have finished first in league. They are a win away from the title. They conclude the season at Kingston today and at home against Olympic on Tuesday.
The Riders (10-5, 11-6) are alone in second place while Sequim (9-6, 10-9), which lost 2-1 to Kingston on Saturday, is in a logjam for third place.
Also contending for third are Bremerton and Olympic (8-6 each), and Kingston (8-7).
The top five Class 2A teams in the league advance to the sub-district playoff games, which start Friday with first-round games.
The league’s top three teams are guaranteed spots in the district tournament while the No. 4 and 5 squads play loser-out games Friday.
Sub-district seeding games are set Saturday in various sites.
The Riders took care of business against Bremerton on Saturday, scoring three runs in the second inning to take a 4-0 lead and never looking back.
Napiontek scattered six hits and an earned run in the seven-inning game.
The senior pitcher also led at the plate, hitting 3 for 4 with a double and an RBI.
Cole Uvila also had a solid day at the plate, going 2 for 4 with two doubles, and scoring a run.
Michael Konopaski and Brad Reandeau both went 2 for 3 at bat with Konopaski scoring two runs and Reandeau earning a run while knocking in another run.
Port Angeles 8, Bremerton 1
Bremerton 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 — 1 6 1
Port Angeles 1 3 0 0 4 0 x — 8 14 0
WP- Napiontek (4-1); LP- Merrill
Pitching Statistics
Bremerton: Merrill 4 1/3 IP, 5 ER, 12 H, 1 K, HBP; Wales 1 2/3 IP, 3 ER, 2 H, 2 K.
Port Angeles: Napiontek 7 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 9 K.
Hitting Statistics
Bremerton: Fultz 1-3, 2B; Melennes 1-3, R, SB; Whitlock 1-3, RBI, SB.
Port Angeles: Uvila 2-4, 2 2B, R; Napiontek 3-4, 2B, RBI; Mi. Konopaski 2-3, 2 R; Reandeau 2-3, R, RBI.
Softball
Sequim 2,
North Mason 1
SEQUIM — The Wolves eked out the victory over the Bulldogs to stay on top of the Olympic League standings just in time for today’s showdown game against archrival Port Angeles.
Sequim beat North Mason in a makeup game Saturday to improve to 10-1 in league.
Kingston sits in second at 8-1 and the Roughriders are in third at 10-2 after big comeback losses to the Wolves and Buccaneers.
Port Angeles lost both games late after having big leads.
No other team in league has less than five losses and is no threat to the top three places.
The Wolves, the defending state champions with only one loss in the last two years, scored once in the third and fourth innings to take a 2-0 lead against the Bulldogs and then held on.
Demiree Briones went the distance on the mound, giving up no earned runs while striking out five and walking none.
The Wolves had only seven hits in the game of their own as Briones and Alexas Besand had two each.
Briones and Hannah Grubb slugged out a double each.
Sequim 2, North Mason 1
North Mason 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 — 1 8 0
Sequim 0 0 1 1 0 0 x — 2 7 0
WP- Briones; LP- K. Bolin
Pitching Statistics
North Mason: K. Bolin 6 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 3 K, 2 BB.
Sequim: Briones 7 IP, 8 H, 0 ER, 5 K, 0 BB.
Hitting Statistics
North Mason: Gascoyne 2-4, Frohlich 2-4, Peek 1-2.
Sequim: Zbaraschuk 1-2, R; Briones 2-3, RBI; Besand 2-3; Grubb 1-3, R.
North Kitsap 12, Port Townsend 5
POULSBO — The Vikings scored five runs in the fourth inning to break open the Olympic League game Friday.
North Kitsap improved to 4-5 on the year while Port Townsend fell to 0-10.
North Kitsap 12, Port Townsend 5
Port Townsend 0 0 4 0 0 1 0 — 5 6 0
North Kitsap 2 0 1 5 2 2 x — 12 10 0
LP- Lee
Pitching Statistics
Port Townsend: M. Lee 4 IP, 2 K, 4 BB; G. Polizzi 2 IP, 4 K, 4 BB.
Hitting Statistics
Port Townsend: N. Taylor 2 H, RBI; M. Lee 2B, RBI; K. Olin RBI.
Track and Field
PA at Shelton
SHELTON — The Roughriders had several standout performances at the 52nd Shelton Invitational, attended by more than 50 high school teams from across Washington.
Highlight of the meet for Port Angeles was Tarah Erickson capturing first place in the pole vault, clearing 10-foot even.
Also on the girls side, freshman sensation Cami Raber took second place in the frosh/soph shot put with an effort of 30-06.
The Roughrider girls sprinters did quite well, too.
Jolene Millsap took a sixth-place medal in the 100 meters with a speedy time of 13.32 seconds.
Elyse Lovgren captured seventh place in the frosh/soph 100 at 13.58.
In addition, hardworking distance runner Elizabeth Stevenson doubled up, taking 15th place in the 3200 with 12:49 and coming back later to take 16th place in the frosh/soph mile at 5:54.
On the boys side, senior Jordan Norberg continues his quest in the javelin, taking sixth place with a toss of 168-11.
Brendan Dennis shocked the crowd with a tremendous finishing kick in the 800-meter race, coming from dead last to second in his heat, taking seventh place overall with a time of 1:58.71.
Nick Shindler capped off the long day in the 3200-meter run with 15th place in 10:12.
Girls Tennis
Port Angeles 5, Olympic 2
PORT ANGELES — The Roughriders finished their regular season by defeating the Trojans on Friday.
Port Angeles swept the doubles matches and won at No. 3 singles to earn the league victory, running its season record to 8-4.
Coach Brian Gundersen picked for the players of the match the seniors who were playing their final match of the season.
“I have been fortunate enough to have many girls as part of this program for the past three or four years and this team will miss them next year,” Gundersen said.
The seniors playing their last match for Port Angeles were: Caylie Cook, Danielle Rutherford, Shayla Bohman, Jordi Fickas, Chelsea Drake, Lissy Moriarty, Kelsey Coffman, Kendra Addleman and Megan Perrizo.
Drake won the crucial No. 3 singles match by beating Krystal Suriben, 6-2, 6-0.
Bohman and Cook defeated Brandie Vitalich-Morgan Estep 6-2, 6-2 at No. 1 doubles.
Moriarty teamed up with Kyrie Reyes to beat Bria McGinley-Emily Crosthwaite 6-2, 6-4 at No. 2 doubles.