PORT ANGELES — Wilder Baseball picked a good time to play one of its best games of the year.
The area all-stars submitted a near-perfect game defensively and came up with timely hits when they needed them to beat defending regional champion Portland Baseball 6-1 on Thursday night.
Ryan Aumock gave up one run in four-plus innings pitched, and Cole Uvila closed the door with three scoreless frames as Wilder moved to 2-0 in pool play at the Senior Babe Ruth Pacific Northwest Regional Tournament.
Portland, which had won its first two games at the tournament by a combined score of 23-1, is now 2-1 in pool play.
“We played good defense, we got great pitching, we got a couple breaks go our way,” Wilder coach Rob Merritt said. “We executed what we’ve been practicing for the last two months.
“We’re just playing now.”
One more Wilder win, and the 16-18-year-old all-stars will clinch the American Division’s top seed into Sunday’s four-team championship round.
Wilder (14-9 overall) will get that chance today when it takes on the Calgary Blue at 4:30 p.m.
“These guys are starting to believe a little bit,” Merritt said.
“I’ll tell them when we get down there [to the locker room], ‘You can play with anybody. You just got to go out and play defense and execute what we do, and we’re fine.’”
Wilder certainly did a lot of little things right to take Thursday’s game.
Aumock and second baseman Kyler Morgan perfectly executed a wheel pick-off play at second to help kill a two-on, no-out Portland threat in the bottom of the second inning.
Right fielder Derek Crain threw out a tagging Portland base runner at home plate for a dramatic double play in the bottom of the fifth to all but end a zero-out, bases-loaded situation.
And Aumock even executed a squeeze bunt in the top of the fourth inning to score Uvila and put Wilder ahead 3-0.
“It reminds me of some of the wins early in the season that got us going,” said Uvila, whose team is 14-4 since starting the summer with five straight losses.
“That was one of the best teams we’ve played all year, and we’re probably going to have to play them again.”
Isaac Yamamoto added a 3-for-3 day at the plate, including what turned out to be the game-winning RBI double during a two-run top of the first.
“We all want to go to the World Series, and beating this team is huge,” said Yamamoto.
“I think we’re peaking at this point. We still got a lot more to do, but we’re starting to hit the spot where we’re playing together as a team and having confidence in each other.”
In all, Wilder bashed 10 hits against Portland pitching, chasing the Oregon squad’s starter with a 4-0 lead in the fifth inning, then adding two more runs in the top of the seventh on a Uvila single to right field.
“Everybody contributed, that was the nice thing,” Yamamoto said. “We got great defense from everybody. Everybody just stepped up and took it seriously.
“We really wanted to come out and make a statement today, and that’s what we did.”
Portland stranded 11 runners in the loss, managing one run despite loading the bases on three separate occasions.
One of those came after Portland knocked Aumock out of the game in the bottom of the fifth with back-to-back hits, including an RBI double from Spencer Maxey, and a walk to begin the frame.
After Uvila walked the first batter to load the bases with no outs, he got Jordyn Van Atta to loft a fly ball to right field.
Crain charged in on the ball, caught it and then fired a perfectly-placed one-hopper to catcher Austin McConnell to gun down Maxey to the plate.
Uvila got another fly ball out to right field from the next batter to end the inning, and Portland never seriously threatened Wilder’s lead the rest of the night.
“It was a great play by Derek, and it got us out of a tough spot,” Uvila said. “It really just got the adrenaline going. It made all the difference for me.”
Uvila ended up with one strikeout, one hit and two walks in earning the save over the final three innings.
Aumock, starting his first game in a month, had two strikeouts while scattering five hits and five walks in four innings with just one earned run.
“That was just first outing [in a month] and he did a great job,” Merritt. “He pitched out of jams, we made great plays and he threw strikes when he needed to and got outs.
“You keep the errors down and you let your pitchers pitch and they let us play defense, and we do fine.”
Wilder 6, Portland 1
Wilder 2 0 0 1 1 0 2 — 6 10 1
Portland 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 — 1 6 2
WP- Aumock; LP- Otness
Pitching Statistics
Wilder: Aumock 4+IP, 2K, 5H, 5BB, ER; Uvila 3IP, K, H, 2BB.
Portland: Otness 5.1IP, 3K, 8H, 2HBP, 3ER, 4R; No. 10 0.2IP, K; Belding IP, 2K, 2H, BB, ER, 2R.
Hitting Statistics
Wilder: Yamamoto 3-3 (RBI, BB); Morgan 1-3 (HBP 2R); Uvila 1-4 (2RBI, R); A.J. Konopaski 1-4 (RBI, R); McConnell 1-4 (2R); Senf 1-2 (2B).
Portland: Maxey 2-4 (2B, RBI).