SALEM, Ore. — Wilder Baseball’s tournament championship run fell one win short at the Post 9 Showcase Classic on Sunday night.
The Senior Babe Ruth Baseball squad ran out of gas against experience-laden host Salem Post 9, falling 13-5 to finish second in the eight-team tourney with a 2-2 record.
Post 9 scored runs in all six innings, including a four-run fifth that broke the game wide open, to run away with the title.
“They weren’t anything super special, but they were scrappy and really quick and they swung the bat well,” Wilder coach Rob Merritt said of Post 9, which featured six 19-year-old junior college players.
“They played the game the right way, and they were well coached.”
Wilder’s tournament run served as a warm up of sorts for the eight-team Dick Brown Memorial Firecracker Classic at Port Angeles’ Civic Field this Friday through Monday.
The North Olympic Peninsula all star team worked out a few more kinks as it moved to 5-2 since starting off the season on a five-game losing skid.
“We’re still in a process, but we’re getting there,” Merritt said.
“When we first started I felt like our defense and pitching would be the key, and we didn’t swing it very well, so we’ve been really concentrating on swinging. Now we’re swinging it and we’re not pitching quite as well.”
Wilder (5-7 overall) scored a total of 29 runs in its four games in Salem, highlighted by 14-run and nine-run games during pool play.
While the all stars were able to plate five runners in the first five innings of Sunday’s championship, Post 9 (12-3) pulled away with a barrage of 11 hits.
The host squad also took advantage of a critical Wilder error with two outs in the bottom of the third.
A throw that should have gotten starting pitcher Austin McConnell out of the frame unscathed instead was off target.
Two runners scored as a direct result, and Post 9 turned a 5-2 advantage into a 7-2 lead that would never again be challenged.
“In the long run when it’s all said and done our pitching is going to get it done,” Merritt said. “We just have to play better defense and not give teams extra outs.”
McConnell was tabbed with the loss after going four innings and giving up eight runs (six earned) on eight hits. Brian Senf came on in relief and surrendered five runs in 1 1/3 innings pitched.
Since the game was played under Legion rules, it ended after the bottom of the sixth because of the eight-run mercy rule.
Isaac Yamamoto, Easton Napiontek and McConnell each had two hits for Wilder, with one of Yamamoto’s a two-run homer.
In the end, however, that wasn’t nearly enough to topple Post 9.
Post 13, Wilder 5
Wilder 0 2 0 1 2 0 — 5 8 2
Post 9 3 2 2 1 4 1 — 13 11 1
WP- Pratt; LP- McConnell
Pitching Statistics
Wilder: McConnell 4IP, 8 R, 6ER, 8H, BB, 2K; Senf 1.1IP, 5ER, 3H, BB, HBP.
Post 9: Pratt 5IP.
Hitting Statistics
Wilder: Napiontek 2-3 (R); McConnell 2-3 (R); Yamamoto 2-2 (HR, 2RBI, R); M. Konopaski 1-2 (RBI, BB).