By Chris McMullen
Herald Writer
VANCOUVER, Wash. – Lake Stevens baseball coach Rodger Anderson has seen his share of bad calls over the years.
And until Saturday he had never complained about umpires costing his team a game. But the Vikings’ 5-2 loss to W.F. West of Chehalis in their opening round, Class 3A state tournament game left Anderson soured by the umpiring.
“I have been coaching high school baseball for 17 years and I have never – not once, have I ever said anything about the outcome of the game being decided by the officials. And I think today it was,” Anderson said.
The Vikings took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the sixth inning behind the strong pitching of Mark Graham. Then their fortunes changed, helped by two controversial calls.
With one out and W.F. West runners on first and second, Ryan Johnstone hit a chopper to first baseman Lake Stevens Matt Freidig, who threw to second for what appeared to be a force out. However, the umpire called the runner safe.
Now, instead of two outs with runners on first and third, the bases were loaded with one out.
Graham still had a chance to wiggle out of the situation, facing W.F. West’s No. 9 hitter, Nick Graber. Graham had struck out Graber an inning earlier.
This time, however, Graber appeared to lean into an inside pitch by Graham and drew a controversial hit-by-pitch call. That forced in a run to tie the score.
“Our catcher says the ball … does not touch him,” Anderson said. “(The umpire) said the ball hit him and it walks in the tying run.”
After a two-RBI single and a balk in the inning, the Bearcats had their final 5-2 margin of victory.
“Players and coaches and officials have good days and bad days, and we got a couple (umpires) that had a bad day,” said Anderson, clearly disappointed to see the seasons of his eight seniors end on controversial calls.
Graham (five strikeouts, three walks) battled toe to toe with W.F. West’s standout pitcher Kyle Aselton (nine strikeouts ,five walks, two earned runs), who remained undefeated for the season with a 9-0 record.
Lake Stevens’ Jacob Taylor, Tim Holt, and Kevin Dvorak each had two hits, while Graham had a single.
Graham, Freidig, Taylor, Dvorak, Holt, Jeremy Cummins, David Reynolds and Frankie Nelson each played in their final games for the Vikings.
“We played hard, they (W.F. West) are a good club,” Anderson said. “Our seniors battled until their very last at bat.
“We had a lot of good times together.”
Saturday just wasn’t one of them.
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