EDMONDS — In a game dominated by pitching early, timely hitting in the late innings was the deciding factor.
Mountlake Terrace third baseman Matthew Johnson hit a go-ahead RBI double in the top of the eighth to give the Hawks a 4-3 lead and first baseman Max Coleman followed two batters later with a double off the center-field fence, driving in two crucial insurance runs as the Mountlake Terrace baseball team topped Edmonds-Woodway 6-4 in eight innings Tuesday.
“They stuck with it. I think that even early in the game they were having good at-bats. They just weren’t getting very good barrel (on the ball). They stuck with it and got some pitches to hit there at the end,” Hawks coach Andrew Watters said. “We’ve got a fairly veteran lineup out there, and they came through today.”
Coleman’s two-run double to extend the Hawks’ lead to three proved pivotal when Warriors first baseman Julian Kodama yanked a solo home run over the right-field fence in the bottom half of the inning to make it 6-4.
Interview with Max Coleman.
“I was just thinking ‘Hit barrel on the ball. This pitcher’s been around the plate most the game,’” Coleman said. “So I just waited for my pitch and swung, and good things happened.”
Both starting pitchers were stingy early. Hawks starter Jesse Martineau who took a no-hit bid into the sixth inning.
“He (had) a great performance. The other team was talking, he didn’t let anybody in his head, he just kept his composure and threw strikes for us,” Coleman said of his teammate. “That’s all you can ask for from your pitcher.”
Martineau struck out four and allowed two hits and two runs over 5 2/3 innings.
“I got a little over-pumped for this game because I know how good they can be,” Martineau said.
The Mountlake Terrace right-hander lost his no-hit bid when Edmonds-Woodway catcher Nico Cooper led off the bottom of the sixth with a single.
“He’s a competitor, he pitches with a lot of fire, he’s a winner,” Watters said. “He gave us everything he had in his body today.”
Cooper moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and, after a walk and a wild pitch, cleanup hitter Jacob Kitchen roped a single into left field to drive in a pair of runs and give the Warriors their first lead at 2-1.
The Hawks regained the lead 3-2 in the top of the seventh on a pair of RBI doubles from first baseman Jonathan Kumai and Coleman, who finished with two doubles and three RBI.
Mountlake Terrace was one out away from sealing the game in the bottom of the seventh when Cooper lined a two-out RBI single to center field to tie the game at 3-3.
But even a late-inning letdown didn’t slow the Hawks recently awoken bats.
“Our guys are resilient,” Watters said. “They have a lot of experience in baseball, and they believe in each other and themselves. They stayed calm today and found a way.”
The victory helped Mountlake Terrace (7-2 overall, 5-1 Wesco 3A) stay atop the Wesco 3A South standings and gives the program its first win over the Warriors (3-4, 2-2) since the 2015 season.
“It means a lot. We’re on a roll right now, we’re playing really good baseball,” Martineau said. “If we can just keep carrying this on, keep beating good teams like this, I don’t know how far we can go. But I think we can go all the way if we keep playing this kind of baseball.”
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