TACOMA — The Snohomish baseball team made a valiant comeback effort in Sunday’s 4A state quarterfinals at Heidelberg Park in Tacoma, but in the end the seven runs the Panthers spotted the Woodinville in the first three innings were two much to overcome in an 8-6 loss.
Woodinville scored two runs in the first inning, two more in the second and three in the third to take a 7-0 lead before Snohomish fired back with five runs in the bottom of the third inning. The Panthers threatened to pull even closer several times in the final four innings, but ultimately came up short bring their season to a close.
“Woodinville played incredibly well,” Snohomish head coach Kim Hammons said. “(The Falcons) got some big hits and jumped on us 7-0. To our kids’ credit, they fought back and made a game of it. (They) clutched up and made good decisions and good plays on defense. We threw out four pitchers. In a game that decides who is going to go to (the semifinals), that’s a lot of pitchers, but they did the same thing trying to find someone that is going to shut the door. I thought we did a pretty good job of that, but defensively we just made too many mistakes early.
The Panthers allowed just five hits for the game, but committed four errors and walked seven batters. Three of those four errors came in the first three innings when the Falcons did most of their damage.
Snohomish pulled to within two runs at 7-5 with a five-run third inning, but Woodinville answered back with a run in the top of the fourth to make it 8-5. Snohomish senior Jake Mullholland narrowly missed a home run to right field in the bottom of the fourth inning, but instead had to settle for a double and the Panthers failed to score in the inning.
The Panthers loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth and had their first two batters reach base in the bottom of the sixth, but failed to score more than one run in either inning.
“I think a clutch hit probably would’ve provided a run or two to tie it up or maybe even would’ve won it, but you just don’t know,” Hammons said. “We just didn’t get the clutch hit, but the kids played great. They played tough and they never game up.”
The Panthers earned their spot in the quarterfinals by beating Emerald Ridge 2-0 earlier in the day. There wasn’t much offense to speak of, but with Mullholland throwing a complete game, three-hit shutout, not much was needed.
“He just threw an absolutely awesome game,” Hammons said. “He went the distance and threw a shutout. It was absolutely a great ball game for him. He’s just always ahead in the count and then when he did get behind and he got a couple of guys on base, he battled back and always kept us ahead.”
The game was scoreless through four innings before senior Derrek Johnson scored on a controversial play at home plate where he alluded a tag attempt from the Emerald Ridge catcher after being caught in a rundown.
“We feel blessed to have Johnson on our team,” Hammons said. “Johnson is incredible. We do rundowns and first (base) and third (base) plays on Mondays and Thursdays. Those are non-game days for us. Johnson, every day he jukes our guys out of their jock and scores or advances to another base. I had to kick him out of the drill because we can’t practice. He’s killing our drill. To see that in the game, that’s what we see in practice every day. That’s not a freak thing.”
Senior Luke Kuna added an RBI infield single later in the inning to give Snohomish a 2-0 lead.
The Panthers season ends with a record of 18-7, while the 19-6 Falcons continue on to next Friday’s semifinals where they will play Kentwood at 7 p.m. at Gesa Stadium in Pasco.
Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on Twitter at @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.
Snohomish 2, Emerald Ridge 0
WP: Jake Mullholland (7 IP, 3 H, 6 K, 2 BB). LP: Chad Gideon (7 IP, 2 R, 5 H, 3 K). Individual Highlights: Emerald Ridge—none. Snohomish—Gavin Bullock (2-3), Luke Kuna (1-3, RBI), Derrek Johnson (R). Records—Emerald Ridge 18-7. Snohomish 18-6.
Woodinville 8, Snohomish 6
WP: Tanner Simon. LP: Luke Kuna. Individual Highlights: Woodinville – Nolan McCafferty (2-3, 2B, HR, 2 RBI). Snohomish – Adam Ivelia (2-3, 2 RBI), Andrew Kane (2-3, 2B, RBI), Jake Mullholland (2B). Records – Woodinville 19-6. Snohomish 18-7.
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