Lake Stevens knocks out Jackson in extras

LAKE STEVENS — Trailing by five runs after two innings, the Lake Stevens baseball team did everything necessary the rest of the game to extend its season on Saturday afternoon.

Vikings starting pitcher Nick Hoskins did his part, shutting out visiting Jackson for the remaining six innings. Offensively, Lake Stevens needed just three innings to erase the deficit, pushing across one run in the third inning and four more in the fourth. And in the decisive eighth inning, the Vikings combined a leadoff walk, a sacrifice bunt, an intentional walk and a line-drive single to left field for the game-winning run.

The result was a thrilling 6-5 extra-inning victory over the Timberwolves in a first-round game of the Class 4A District 1 tournament.

“These guys have come back a few times this year, so they know (they can do it) and they believe in themselves,” said Lake Stevens coach Rodger Anderson. “Everybody just kept saying, ‘There’s a lot of time.’ We knew if we could just score one or two runs, and get it to within three (we had a chance). So we just kept battling.”

The winning rally started with leadoff hitter Andrew Bustard, the Lake Stevens catcher, working a full-count walk against Jackson reliever Alec Anderson. J.T. Troia followed with a well-placed bunt up the first-base line, moving courtesy runner Quinlan Hayes to second. Chase Ridder was then walked intentionally, bringing Justin Brown to the plate.

On an 0-1 pitch, Brown laced a sharp single into the left-center field gap. With a great jump, Hayes was already around third by the time the Jackson outfielders converged on the ball and he scored easily, triggering a joyous Lake Stevens celebration.

The pitch was a breaking ball “in the middle of the plate, and I just waited back and tried to stay up the middle or go the other way,” Brown said. “It got some good barrel on it and flipped it out (into left field).”

Brown, who went 4-for-4 and was hit by a pitch in his only other plate appearance, was one of several offensive heroes for the Vikings. Ridder was likewise 4-for-4 with a walk and an RBI, Troia was 1-for-2 with two runs and a pivotal sacrifice, Bustard was also 1-for-2 with two runs and an RBI, and Jacob Eason was hitless in two at-bats, but had two RBI.

But among the Vikings, it would be hard to surpass the effort by Hoskins. Shrugging of a shaky second inning, when the T-wolves sent 10 batters to the plate and tagged him for five runs — he threw close to 50 pitches in that inning alone — the senior right-hander was simply outstanding the rest of the way. He gave up 11 hits, but just four over the final six shutout innings.

Hoskins ended up throwing 130 pitches, a total that had Anderson shaking his head with disbelief after the game.

“That’s the first time in my 31 years (of coaching) that anybody’s gone that long,” he said. “But (Hoskins) wouldn’t let me take him out. He kept begging and begging (to stay in). If it were a younger guy, I wouldn’t have let him go that long. But with him being a senior … he just said, ‘No, I got it.’

“I thought he threw an excellent game,” Anderson added. “Maybe the best game of his career.”

Having reached the double-elimination portion of the tourney, the third-seeded Vikings will travel to face No. 2 seed Mount Vernon at 4 p.m. Monday. Lake Stevens has lost twice to Mount Vernon already this season, “but we’re hot right now and everybody feels good,” Brown said. “And we owe Mount Vernon something, for sure.”

The outcome could hardly have been more heartbreaking for Jackson, which seemed to take the game in hand with a five-run second inning.

Jackson starting pitcher Tyler Wingert, making his first pitching appearance in six weeks due to a sore shoulder, drew praise from T-wolves coach Kirk Nicholson “for the way he came back and just putting in the effort he did.” Wingert lasted into the fourth inning, “but I just couldn’t keep him in. Not with any conscience, I couldn’t.”

Though the loss ended Jackson’s season, “I have no regrets for my kids,” Nicholson added. “That’s a pretty good team we lost to, and we did everything we could today.”

At Lake Stevens H.S.

Jackson 050 000 00—5 11 2

Lake Stevens 001 400 01—6 12 2

Tyler Wingert, Colton Faddis (4), Alec Anderson (5) and Jeremy Martin. Nick Hoskins and Andrew Bustard. WP—Hoskins. LP—Anderson. 2B—Tyler Billings (LS). 3B—Alex Cheesman (J). Records—Lake Stevens 13-8. Jackson 9-12.

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