SNOHOMISH — Coming into Friday’s Wesco 3A South baseball game against Meadowdale, Glacier Peak had won just three games.
The Grizzlies didn’t play like it.
Glacier Peak’s offense exploded for 10 runs on 11 hits and Grizzlies starter Jacob Lundin held gave up just three hits to shut out Meadowdale 10-0 in six innings.
“(Offense) has probably been the most consistent piece for us all year,” Glacier Peak head coach Bob Blair said. “The thing that’s let us down in games has been our defense, guys trying to do more than what we’re asking them to do. Offensively we’ve hit the ball hard and put it in play, we’ve just been hitting it at people. Today some of them dropped that have been getting caught in the past.”
The Grizzlies scored three runs with two outs in the bottom of the first inning on a two-run single from junior Dylan Peterson and an RBI-single from senior Ty Deckwa to take a 3-0 lead.
They padded that lead with three more runs in the bottom of the second, all of which came on a three-run home run by Austin Hines. Hines’ home run came on the second pitch of the at-bat. He hit the first offer farther, but it was just left of the foul pole in left field.
“(The pitcher) hung a curve ball and I hit it over the wall,” Hines said. “It felt pretty good.”
After a slow start to the season, Hines has come on as one of the Grizzlies’ biggest offensive threats.
“He’ll bunt for a base hit and then come up the next time and hit a double in the gap,” Blair said. “He’s just been offensively one of our more consistent guys. He started slow, but ever since then he’s been on fire.”
The six-run cushion was more than enough for junior pitcher Lundin, who pitched a complete game and gave up just three hits. It was Lundin’s first win of the season after losing his first three decisions.
“He’s been our best pitcher all year, without question,” Blair said. “Unfortunately for him we have not been playing the best defense behind him. His record is not reflective of how good he’s been for us.”
Lundin was perfect through two innings and didn’t give up his first hit until the top of the fourth.
“I felt like I had a lot of rhythm, threw a lot of strikes and just pitched to contact,” Lundin said. “(I) let the batters get themselves out.”
Junior Dylan Peterson led off the bottom of the third inning with a double and scored moments later on a single by Deckwa. The Grizzlies added a second run later in the inning on a sacrifice fly by senior Chris Watkins.
Peterson finished 2-for-3 at the plate, while Deckwa was 2-for-2.
Glacier Peak scored the game’s final two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. The first came on an RBI-groundout by sophomore Geoff Rogers and the second, which ended the game came on an RBI-single by junior Chase Kramer.
The Grizzlies took two of three games from the Mavericks this week after taking Friday’s rubber match.
“A sweep would have been huge, but taking two out of three is good,” Hines said. “It will get us on the road to winning and hopefully we keep going strong to end the season.”
Glacier Peak (4-7 league, 4-10 overall) started the season with a disappointing 3-7 league record, but appear to be getting things turned around after shutting out Meadowdale twice this week.
“We talked about changing things and that we weren’t a 3-10 team,” Blair said. “We were better than that. We’ve played a lot of one-run and two-run games. We played them on Wednesday and gave up 10 runs in one inning. We’ve had that happen a couple of times where we’ve beaten teams other than giving them one inning. We talked about eliminating that one inning.”
The Grizzlies have lost four of their games by one run, including the first two of the season, and lost another by two runs.
“We’ve competed with everybody all along, we’ve just gotten in our own way,” Blair said. “We’ve beaten ourselves repeatedly.”
Meadowdale dropped to 6-3 in league play and 8-4 overall. The Mavericks are still comfortably ahead of Mountlake Terrace for second place in the Wesco 3A South, but trail division leading and undefeated Shorewood (10-0, 13-0) by 3½ games.
At Glacier Peak H.S.
Meadowdale000000x—031
Glacier Peak332002x—10110
Elliot Reece, Spenser Hollis (4), Jacob Hunnewell (6) and Parker Coffey. Jake Lundin and Geoff Rogers. WP—Lundin (1-3). LP—Reece (2-2). 2B—Ray Rude (GP), Dylan Peterson (GP), Dakota Barlament (M). HR—Austin Hines (GP). Records—Meadowdale 6-3 league, 8-4 overall. Glacier Peak 4-7, 4-10.
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