TACOMA — After trailing 6-0 going into the bottom of the sixth inning of Saturday’s game against Centralia in the opening round of the 2A state baseball tournament, Archbishop Murphy rallied to cut the deficit to 6-4 with the bases loaded and no one out in the bottom of the seventh inning.
The Wildcats’ valiant comeback effort ultimately fell short in a heartbreaking 6-5 loss that ended their season.
“When the dust settles, they’ll realize they had a great season,” Archbishop Murphy head coach Stan Taloff said. “Obviously the goal was to get to the final four and win a state championship, but it doesn’t always work out that way in baseball.”
Archbishop Murphy scored its first two runs in the bottom of the sixth and already had three across the plate in the bottom of the seventh before one play changed the game. With the bases loaded and just one out, junior Houston Schmutz appeared to get hit by a pitch which would have forced in the tying run, but the umpire said Schmutz leaned into the pitch forcing him to continue the at bat. Schmutz struck out moments later and senior Curtis Ponton grounded out to the pitcher to end the game.
“It was a tough way to go,” Taloff said. “Sometimes if you go out and get beat there is nothing you can do about that, but in this particular case we gave away a few too many things earlier in the game and when we came back we didn’t get a break that we needed.”
Taloff said there was no denying that the Wildcats had all the momentum before the call sent Schmutz back to the plate.
“There was a huge amount of momentum that was in our favor and there wasn’t anyone on our team or any of our fans that didn’t believe we were going to pull it out,” Taloff said.
Junior Cameron Nix delivered the hit that got the Wildcats to within one run. Nix finished 2-for-3 with the one RBI.
“Today, and even through all of the district playoffs, he’s consistently put the ball in play,” Taloff said of Nix. “He really made a great contribution, especially swinging from the left side (of the plate), it really helped us out.”
The Wildcats spotted Centralia five runs in the top of the first inning thanks to two uncharacteristic throwing errors. In addition to the errors, Taloff said starting pitcher Connor Sand “wasn’t as sharp as he is normally,” but said additional pitches due to the early errors played a role in that.
Taloff didn’t place any blame on his senior pitcher, who came into the game with a 1.05 earned run average.
“He’s meant so much to the program over the past couple of years with his ability to throw strikes and us playing defense behind him.”
The Wildcats have battled through several injuries throughout the season to get to the state tournament and though they came up short, Taloff was pleased with the way his team competed.
“They stuck it out the best they could,” he said. “That’s the best you could expect from a high school team, to battle it out to the last out.”
At Franklin Pierce H.S.
Centralia 500 001 0 — 6 9 2
Archbishop Murphy 000 002 3 — 5 13 2
Christian Peters, Drew Fagerness (7) and Jacob Monohon. Connor Sand, Cole Brandt (6) and Ernie Gamboa, Aiden Waite (6). WP—Peters. LP—Sand (7-3). 2B—Gavin Kerner (C), Peters (C), Max Dulin (C). 3B—Austin Earl (AM). Records—Archbishop Murphy 18-6. Centralia 16-7.
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