In regional final, defense falls apart for steady Kamiak

By Scott M. Johnson

Herald Writer

KENT – All the sympathy in Mukilteo won’t take away the pain the Kamiak High School baseball team might be feeling this morning. All the ice probably won’t do the trick, either.

Despite gutsy pitching performances from the overused arms of Steve Griffith and Brian Ouellette, the Knights’ season came to an end in the 4A state playoffs after one mistake-filled inning. Griffith pitched 10 innings before Ouellette came on in relief of a 5-4 win over Curtis, then Ouellette started and finished in a 5-0 loss to Federal Way in a regional final that night.

Ouellette (5-4) earned a win and a loss for his efforts. His defeat came after five innings of shutout ball, as three errors in the bottom of the sixth led to five unearned runs.

“We had a great defense all year, but this game it hurt us,” said Ouellette, one of seven underclassmen among the Knights’ top 10 players. “We’ll be back. We’ll have a good team next year.”

Ouellette, having pitched the final inning of Game 1, pitched five strong innings in the Federal Way game before he seemed to tire. The sophomore gave up two singles, intentionally walked two other batters, and was hurt the most by the three errors and a bases-loaded walk.

“The flood gates just kind of opened up,” said Kamiak coach Steve Merkley, who led the Knights to their first-ever state tournament berth this season.

One inning earlier, in the top of the fifth, it looked as if the Knights were the team that might break the game open. Ouellette opened that frame with a single, then Whitney Wilson and Johnny Mack reached on back-to-back bunt singles to load the bases with no one out. But a pair of strikeouts and a groundout to third base ended the threat to keep the game scoreless.

Federal Way’s Greg Washington drove in the game-winner with a one-out single in the bottom of the sixth. The next three batters also reached base as the game started to get away from Kamiak.

“That one inning killed us,” said Griffith, who played third base in the second game after throwing an unbelievable 131 pitches in the first-round win Saturday afternoon. “They really put us away that inning. We tried to get fired up for the next inning, but when someone scores five runs on you in the bottom of the sixth, it’s tough.”

The Knights had only about an hour to get ready for the game after spending most of their afternoon carving out an 11-inning, 5-4 win over Curtis of Tacoma in the first round.

That three-hour affair finally concluded when Jeff Poole lined a single into right field to score Nate Santiago from third base with one out in the bottom of the 11th. Poole had a similar opportunity in the bottom of the seventh, with runners on first and second and two outs, but he grounded to second base for the final out of the inning.

On both occasions, the Curtis pitcher intentionally walked the batter before Poole.

“It’s personal when they do that,” Poole said. “They got me the first time, but I couldn’t let them do it to me twice.”

Poole was one of many heroes for Kamiak, which scored a run on Santiago’s single in the bottom of the seventh to send the game into extra innings. Santiago – one of only three seniors in Kamiak’s batting order – later led off the 11th with a triple before scoring the game-winner.

Griffith, a junior, threw 131 pitches over 10 innings just to keep the Knights in the game before Ouellette came on to earn the win after a six-pitch top of the 11th. Ouellette threw a total of 87 pitches over the two games, while Griffith threw more than he ever has before.

“We usually try to keep him under 100 pitches,” Merkley said. “But in a situation like this, it’s one game and you’re out.”

Merkley almost took Griffith out of the game in the eighth, but left him in there through 10 innings despite the fact that his fastball was almost out of gas and he could no longer throw his curve. Griffith relied on a changeup through the final two innings, finishing the game with seven strikeouts after giving up nine hits.

“That was unbelievable,” Poole said. “I thought they were going to take him out in the sixth, but he just kept going. He’s got a lot of heart. He’s a big reason why we’ve gotten this far. He just goes out and pitches his heart out.”

Griffith, who finished his season with a 7-0 record, admitted that he’ll probably feel the aftereffects of overuse today. But he doesn’t regret it.

“It was a state game, so I went out there and gave it my all,” Griffith said. “We’re not going to be playing too much longer.”

Wilson drove in two runs in the win, both RBI coming when he beat out throws to first base to avoid inning-ending double plays. Marc Rollins was 3-for-5 and scored twice. Rollins had a chance to be the hero with Santiago standing on third and no one out in the 11th, but two well-hit balls to leftfield drifted foul before he finally struck out.

Griffith was then intentionally walked so that southpaw reliever Brian Robinson could get to Poole, also a lefty.

Zink, Robinson (8) and Burg. Griffith, Ouellette (11th) and T. Reed. WP-Ouellette (5-3). LP-Robinson (4-1). 2B-Gidley (Cur). 3B-Zink (Cur), Santiago (Kam). Record-Curtis 15-8 overall.