OLYMPIA — The Olympic Junior Babe Ruth 13U baseball team picked up about where it left off last year, going undefeated and winning its first tournament of the season.
Olympic is made up mostly of players from the Port Angeles 12U team that competed at the 2014 Cal Ripken World Series in Alachua, Fla.
Olympic won all three games at the one-day tournament Saturday, scoring a combined 24 runs and tallying 30 hits while batting .370 as a team.
Olympic used four pitchers who combined to allow only 11 runs and 12 hits while striking out 23 batters.
“We pitched very well, we played very good defense, stole a lot of bases and hit the ball around the yard in all three games,” Olympic head coach Zac Moore said.
“We had very good positional hitting throughout the day.”
Olympic opened the tournament with a 5-4 win over D4 Thunder from the Aberdeen area.
Olympic pitcher Brody Merritt earned the complete-game victory, going seven innings and giving up four runs on four hits with 10 strikeouts and three walks.
Olympic fell behind 2-0 in the top of the second inning, but struck back with a run of its own in the bottom of the inning off a double by Tanner Lunt down the left-field line.
The Thunder scored their other two runs in the top of the third to go up 4-1.
Olympic again responded, scoring two in its half of the third. Nathan Miller singled and stole a base and was brought in on a double by Eathan Flodstrom. Flodstrom then scored on a fielder’s choice hit by Tyler Bowen.
Merritt and Olympic’s defense kept D4 off the scoreboard the rest of the game. Five of Merritt’s 10 strikeouts came after the third inning.
“After the third, Brody just went to work and shut them down,” Moore said.
“We also played very good defense behind him, including a key double play from Milo Whitman in the sixth inning, catching a liner up the middle and throwing the guy out at first.”
Olympic took the lead in the fifth inning.
Derek Bowechop tripled to scored Bowen and then scored himself after a bad throw to third base.
In its second game, Olympic made quick work of Tacoma’s Tugs Red Steen, winning 10-0 in four innings.
Flodstrom pitched a complete-game one-hitter, striking out seven and walking four.
“Ethan threw an amazing game, only giving up one hit and striking out seven. It was impressive,” Moore said.
“We played very good defense behind him, having zero errors.”
Olympic scored seven of its 10 runs in the fourth inning.
Flodstrom and Miller bunted their ways on base, Bowen doubled and Whitman had a single.
Merritt brought in two with a deep double, and Isaiah Getchall hit a double over the left fielder.
Lucas Jarnigan and Tanner Lunt also had hits and RBIs in the inning.
In the championship game, Olympic held off Yelm’s Titans to win 9-7.
Olympic starter Timmy Adams pitched 5 2/3 innings, striking out five and walking one while allowing five hits and six runs.
After a solid first three innings, Adams ran into some trouble in the fourth when a couple of costly errors and timely hits by the Titans led to four runs.
Olympic, though, kept pace, putting up runs in the second through seventh innings.
Getchall drove in Bradley in the second inning, and Alex Lamb brought in Getchall.
In the third, Whitman came in on a single by Bowechop.
Getchall scored again in the fourth off Miller’s ground-rule double.
Olympic plated a pair of runs in the fifth inning: Lunt drove in Bowechop with a base hit to right field and then scored himself on a wild pitch.
Flodstrom scored in the sixth and Lunt finished Olympic’s scoring with a run in the seventh.
Olympic next plays this weekend in Tacoma.
Olympic will host the Junior Babe Ruth 13U state tournament July 9-12 at Volunteer Field in Port Angeles.
Port Angeles 9U goes 2-2
MONROE — The Port Angeles 9U baseball team started its summer season in Monroe playing in the Legends Tournament earlier this month and went 2-2 to place ninth.
“It was a great start to the season, getting the kids together after three practices and playing a tournament,” manager Brian Shimko said.
“Great group of kids. Can’t wait to see what the season turns out.”
