EDMONDS — Jackson’s Cody Shamale wasn’t supposed to play.
But when senior captain Gabriel Rochon sprained his ankle legging out a single in the top of the first inning, Shamale stepped into his spot.
Shamale, normally a pitcher, batted 2-for-3 with five RBI for Jackson in an 11-7 win over Edmonds-Woodway in a Western Conference South Division game Friday afternoon at Edmonds-Woodway High School.
The Warriors’ starting pitcher, right-hander Blaine Liukko, kept the Jackson bats silent for five innings with his knuckle-grinding, submarine pitching style. But fatigue set in and Liukko loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth inning before being lifted for Andy Willcock.
“That was nasty,” Shamale said of Liukko’s delivery. “It was hard to read.”
“How do we practice against something like that?” Jackson head coach Kirk Nicholson said.
Willcock fared no better for the Warriors, missing the strike zone (walked in a run, hit a batter to score another) and giving up an RBI single to Sam Brown before departing in favor of Brandon Lowe.
That’s when Shamale connected with an outside fastball and vaulted Jackson to a 7-4 lead with a three-run home run.
Edmonds-Woodway struck back for two runs in the bottom of the sixth to make it a one-run game heading into the final inning. Quinn Naughtin hit a sacrifice fly and Joe Lopresti drove in a run with his third double of the game — a sharply hit ball to the gap in left-center field.
But the Warriors bullpen couldn’t find the strike zone and Jackson widened its lead. Tyler Desmarais singled in a run and Miles Brown hit a sacrifice fly before Shamale laced a two-run single under the first baseman’s glove.
“If you throw strikes, you give yourself a chance,” Nicholson said, making light of both squads’ struggles to find the zone. “We made the most of our opportunities.”
But Jackson wasn’t out of the woods.
Mason Haugen came on to pitch in the seventh inning with Willcock standing on first base and no outs. Haugen retired Austin Jones on a fly ball to center field, but Kramer Daniels singled to left and Haugen balked on the next pitch allowing Willcock to score.
Patrick Bernard and Derek Callahan walked around an Alex Marier strikeout and the game-tying run, represented by Naughtin, stood at the plate with two outs.
Fortunately for the Timberwolves, Haugen got Naughtin to pop out in foul territory to end the threat and the game.
“I would say for the first five innings, we were dead,” Nicholson said, adding in jest that he was taking that time to figure out his lineups for next week. “This is a really big win for us.”
Trevor Swartz and Lopresti hit RBI doubles in the fourth inning to help E-W to a 4-0 lead and chase Jackson starting pitcher Nick Kiel from the game.
Spanning the two-game series, Jackson and E-W combined to score 35 runs on 34 hits with each game undecided until the final out.
Jackson now stands one game ahead of E-W in the Wesco South standings with a 9-5 league record.
“We had to win this game,” Shamale said. “…That’s (the win) a big jump-start going into next week.”
At Edmonds-Woodway H.S.
Jackson0000074—1161
E-W0400021—7102
Kiel, Lang (5), Haugen (7) and Olson. Liukko, Willcock (6), Lowe (6), Heckman (7) and Swartz, Liukko (6). WP—Lang. LP—Willcock. 2B—Swartz (EW), Lopresti (EW) 3, Marier (EW), Kim (J). HR—Shamale (J). Records—Jackson 9-5 league, 11-5 overall. Edmonds-Woodway 8-6, 10-6.
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