STANWOOD — Jake Lundin had battled out of trouble all day, so Glacier Peak baseball coach Bob Blair had one simple message as he went out for the final inning: Prove to me you want to finish this.
Lundin did just that. The Grizzlies junior gave up a leadoff double but then buckled down to get Stanwood 1-2-3 and strand the runner at third to secure Glacier Peak’s 2-1 win over the Spartans in a 3A District 1 Tournament first-round game.
“I asked him to prove to me that he could finish the game,” Blair said of his message to Lundin heading out for the bottom of the seventh. “I couldn’t leave him out there unless he made me confident that he could do it. He did well.”
Glacier Peak advances to play Shorewood on Tuesday at Meridian Park Fields at 7 p.m. Stanwood hosts Marysville Getchell in a loser-out contest on Tuesday at 4 p.m.
“We know we’re going to see great pitching because we saw it three times during the regular season,” Blair said of Tuesday’s showdown with 3A South rival Shorewood. “We just hope we can manufacture some runs.”
On Saturday, Glacier Peak had to manufacture its runs out of thin air. The Grizzlies managed just four hits against Stanwood starter Wyatt Jeans, but two of them came in the key fifth inning that was also aided by some miscues in the field by the Spartans.
With the Grizzlies trailing 1-0, Ty Deckwa led off the fifth with his second hit of the game and managed to move to second when Stanwood’s second baseman booted a double play attempt by the next hitter. Chase Kremer then got an infield single to put runners on first and third with one out.
Then the usually solid Stanwood defense fell apart. A throwing error by Stanwood’s catcher trying to pick Deckwa off third allowed the Grizzlies infielder to score the team’s first run and moved Kremer to second. Chris Watkins then hit a sharp ground ball to third and the subsequent throw to first forced the Spartans’ first baseman off the bag. Next up, freshman Ryan Ober hit a towering fly ball to right field, allowing Kremer to tag and score the go-ahead run.
“Ober just goes up there and he’s aggressive and not afraid of anybody or any situation and that’s rare to find in a freshman,” Blair said.
Glacier Peak then turned to Lundin to close it out. The Grizzlies starter flirted with trouble all day, allowing runners into scoring position in three of the first four innings. But the right-hander limited Stanwood to just one run and he buckled down over the final three innings.
After a 1-2-3 fifth, Lundin got Jimmy Mailloux to hit a line drive that was caught by the shortstop and doubled up Stanwood’s Tyler Givens — who had led off the inning with a single — to end the sixth.
“We’ve trusted him enough throughout the year that as nervous as I was starting to get there at the end, we knew that he’d done it before for us and that he’d do it again,” Blair said of Lundin.
Lundin finished with just two strikeouts, but the Glacier Peak defense was solid behind him, committing zero errors and turning two key double plays.
Stanwood scored its only run on a perfectly played squeeze bunt. Nick Wright led off the fourth with a walk and Mailloux followed it up with a single. After moving over to third with one out, Wright broke for home and Alec Scappini placed down a nice bunt just in front of Lundin. The Grizzlies pitcher couldn’t flip it to catcher Geoff Rogers in time to get Wright sliding into home for the game’s first run.
At Stanwood H.S.
Glacier Peak 000 020 0 — 2 4 0
Stanwood 000 100 0 — 1 6 2
Jake Lundin and Geoff Rogers. Wyatt Jeans and Ryen Verbarendse. WP—Lundin (2-3). LP—Jeans (3-1). 2B—Hedeen (S), Olson (S) 2. Records—Glacier Peak 11-10 overall. Stanwood 14-7.
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