Glacier Peak headed to state after walk-off win over Jackson

Published 1:30 am Saturday, May 13, 2017

SHORELINE — Ordinarily, Riley Parker might have been disappointed his towering fly ball didn’t clear the fence here at Meridian Park.

However, on Saturday, the Glacier Peak junior was fine to settle for a game-winning, walk-off double that propelled the Grizzlies to the 4A state tournament with a 4-3 victory over the Jackson Timberwolves in a winner-to-state, loser-out contest in the 4A District 1 tournament.

“Just a good pitch down the middle,” Parker said. “He gave it to me and I smashed it.”

Parker’s shot, his second double of the game, capped a two-run come-from-behind victory over the Timberwolves and sends Glacier Peak to the state tournament in its first year at the 4A level. The Grizzlies (15-7) will be the No. 2 seed from Wesco and play next Saturday at Heidelberg Park in Tacoma.

Glacier Peak reached the 3A state playoffs last season, but only two Class 4A teams advance from Wesco. The Grizzlies lost the district title game to upstart Lake Stevens on Thursday.

“The competition is different because it’s deeper (at the 4A level),” Glacier Peak coach Bob Blair said. “The talent pool is deeper. We’re happy to be here — very much so.”

The teams traded a pair of runs in the first inning before Jackson took a 3-2 lead in the top of the sixth when Diego Altamirano led off with a walk and scored on a double-play groundout.

After allowing the two first-inning runs, Jackson starter Anton Soderqvist cruised through the sixth before yielding to Altamirano to begin the seventh. Altamirano walked leadoff hitter Deven Kamihara on four pitches and was immediately replaced by Adam Sullivan. An error put runners at second and third to set up Parker’s walk-off double.

“We’ve done that a couple times this season,” Blair said. “With our offense, we know all we need is some chances and (number) one through nine in our lineup, we feel like we can put the ball in play.”

Kamihara worked the first 6 1/3 innings and scattered seven hits. He did not allow an earned run.

“He was fantastic,” Blair said. “He’s played left field for us for most of the year so he hasn’t seen the mound too much for us. Probably coming into this (he had) a total of 15 innings. For him to come out and throw 103 pitches and shut them down — that’s a great team. They hit well and they are one of the better offensive teams in the league, so he really shut them down and did a good job.”

The Timberwolves (14-9) took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. Soderqvist reached on an error and scored on Addison Beckmann’s sac fly, and Ben Steck was hit by a pitch and scored on Chris Grayson’s RBI single.

Glacier Peak drew even in the bottom of the inning when Ethan Smith and Ryan Ober each doubled and scored.

Those were the only runs the Grizzles scored until the seventh.

“We want to keep playing, so we came together and said, ‘let’s go, let’s win this,’” Parker said. “We did it.”