Jackson beats Kamiak

Published 11:37 pm Friday, March 25, 2011

MILL CREEK — Jackson’s baseball team has yet to lose in the 2011 season, but coach Kirk Nicholson doesn’t know how good his Timberwolves are thanks to the damp, wintry weather that has pummeled the region for most of March.

Friday’s 15-7 pounding of Kamiak– a team that hadn’t lost before dr

opping the first game of the series Thursday — wasn’t even enough to give him a good idea. Nicholson still hasn’t seen his players take the field long enough to have a solid opinion.

“We have a long ways to go from thinking we are good at what we are doing,” Nicholson said. “We don’t know yet.”

That weather moved Friday’s game between Wesco South rivals from Kamiak, whose soggy field is still not ready for play. Being the visiting team of their home field didn’t seem to hamper the Timberwolves’ (2-0 league, 4-0 overall) bats. They were prolific enough to make a coach consider being the visitor at home all the time.

“Whatever it is to get a ‘W’ that’s cool with me,” Nicholson said.

There was no better T-wolves hitter than leadoff batter Kyle Olson. Olson batted 3-for-3 with a double and two walks. Because Olson’s the catcher, Jackson can pinch run for him and Nick Zuzula subbed each team Olson reached base, scoring five runs.

“I’ve been working a lot in the offseason,” Olson said of hits hitting. “I’m seeing the ball really good right now.”

He misses scoring his own runs, but gets why the coaches make the switch.

“I do like to run the bases,” Olson said. “It’s one of the funner things. I like stealing. I like messing around with the defense, but it saves my legs for the game so I’m always good behind the plate.”

Behind the plate Olson had no trouble handling pitcher Nick Kiel (2-0), who fanned six in 42/3 innings. Kiel allowed just two earned runs before being lifted for a reliever, who allowed both inherited runners to score in the fifth.

Jackson jumped out with three runs in the top of the first and the Knights (0-2, 4-2) came back with a pair in the bottom of the inning to make the score 3-2, which was the score of Thursday’s pitchers’ duel between the two teams.

“Yesterday, quite frankly, we got lucky,” Nicholson said. “They make an error in the bottom of the seventh, otherwise they probably get us yesterday.”

Friday was anything but a pitchers’ duel as both teams ran low on fresh arms.

The Timberwolves broke the game open with five runs in the top of the fourth. Sam Brown had the big hit, a first-pitch, three-RBI double that chased Ian Davidson (1-1). The Knights pitcher had just issued consecutive walks to load the bases.

Kamiak used five pitchers, including one just called up from the junior varsity. Coach Steve Merkley’s staff was already thin after learning earlier in the day that Austin Hansen, who had been the team’s No. 2 starter, suffered an avulsion fracture and would miss the rest of the season.

“Not having his arm against a team like this hurts you,” Merkley said.

He still praised Davidson despite his leaving with the score 8-2.

“He did okay,” Merkley said. “We had some miscues behind him.”

The Jackson hitters wouldn’t have made it easy on any pitcher Friday.

“We are good all around,” Olson said. “Our whole offense can hit so we are pretty good through the whole lineup.”

Nicholson was happy to get the win and happy to get the game in prior to the downpour and mini-hailstorm that immediately followed the strikeout that closed the game, but he knows this two-game sweep doesn’t automatically mean that Jackson will finish ahead of the Knights at the end of the season.

“They are a better team than that and we are a better team than that too,” Nicholson said of the sloppy play on both sides Friday. “It’ll be a different game when we play them next time. They are pretty good.”