TACOMA — Without what most would consider an ace pitcher, the Cascade baseball team changed its strategy for its two 4A state regional games on Saturday. Rather than try to have one starter get deep into the game, the Bruins threw multiple pitchers for a few innings at a time.
The strategy paid off with a 4-1 win over Puyallup in the first game, but the Bruins fell 9-5 to Cascade in the quarterfinals bringing their season to an end.
“We’re really proud of what we did,” Cascade coach Scott Stencil said. “We’ve got a bunch of guys that just work really hard and grind out games. To get this far with that group, we’re super-excited and they’re super-excited. Obviously it sucks to have it end the way it ended, but only one team gets to end their season with a win.”
Four Bruin pitchers combined to allow just three hits against the Vikings.
“Our pitching has been pretty good all year, but we don’t really have that go-to number one guy so we thought our best chance against a team like Puyallup was to have everybody get an inning or two and kind of keep switching guys,” Stencil said.
The Bruins stuck with the same strategy against Skyline, but giving up four runs in the first inning forced them to play from behind for most of the game. They tied the game at 5-5 in the fourth inning, but Skyline scored the final four runs of the game to secure the win.
“It was a pretty emotional win for us to beat Puyallup,” Stencil said. “It’s really hard, no matter how hard you try, to get re-geared back up for a second game. I thought we did a pretty good job of that. They scored four in the first, which was kind of a bummer, but then we were able to get three runs back (in the bottom of the first) and we’re able to actually tie the game up in the fourth. We just kind of ran out gas. We didn’t play poorly, but they just put some really good swings on balls. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t our day to get that second win.”
Cascade’s biggest hit of the day belonged to senior Brennen Hancock. With the game tied at 1-1 in the top of the seventh inning, Hancock cleared the bases with a 3-run triple that gave the Bruins a 4-1 lead, which is how the game ended.
“The guy threw him a fastball and he hit it about as hard as you can hit it without hitting a home run,” Stencil said. “(It was) a great swing and we were able to clear the bases there and that obviously ended up being the difference in the game.”
Cascade 4, Puyallup 1
At Foss H.S.
WP: Nik Soros. LP: not reported. Individual highlights: Cascade—Brennen Hancock (3B, 3 RBI); Michael Carter (RBI). Puyallup—not reported. Records—Cascade 16-8 overall. Puyallup 20-5.
Skyline 9, Cascade 5
At Foss H.S.
WP: not reported. LP: Brett Gillis. Individual highlights: Skyline—not reported. Cascade—Ryan Colvin (2 H); Hancock (2 H); Carter (2 H, 2 RBI). Records—Skyline 19-7 overall. Cascade 16-9.
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