BELLEVUE — The Shorewood High School baseball team came up with the big rally it needed to tie things up in the fifth inning, but Timberline’s response in the sixth was too much for the Stormrays to overcome with only three outs remaining.
Fifth-seeded Timberline pushed across four runs in the bottom of the sixth and defeated 12th-seeded Shorewood 7-3 in the Class 3A state baseball tournament’s round of 16 Saturday at Bannerwood Park.
The Blazers (21-3) advanced to a quarterfinal matchup with fourth-seeded Lake Washington later Saturday evening.
The Stormrays finished their season with a 16-8 record.
“I’m just thankful we got to play, especially for the seniors with what they’ve had to go through with COVID, getting a season canceled, then playing half a season and then we went through a name change (Shorewood’s mascot was changed from Thunderbirds to Stormrays in 2021),” Shorewood coach Wyatt Tonkin said. “They did great with all of the changes we had to go through. I was just very, very pleased and proud of our guys. We’ll get back at it next year.”
Everything seemed to go Timberline’s way early on, as the Blazers pushed across three runs over the first three innings without making much hard contact off Washington-bound Shorewood ace Logan Anderson.
A leadoff bloop single and two-base throwing error on a chopper in the infield put runners on second and third immediately for Timberline, and the Blazers capitalized on their fortunes with Bailey New’s two-run single to right field.
“The first inning (Logan) had a real good live action on his ball,” Tonkin said. “It was sinking and they were beating it into the ground, but we just didn’t have someone in a place to play it. That kind of hurt.”
A throwing error on a pickoff attempt and a wild pitch allowed Timberline’s Tyler McLellan to reach third after his one-out single in the third, and starter Marcus Olson helped out his own cause with an RBI infield single to make it 3-0.
The Stormrays loaded the bases with three walks in the fifth and pushed all three runners across with two outs to tie the game thanks to Blake Gettmann’s RBI infield single and a two-run single from Noah Fahey.
But Timberline responded with its own rally in the sixth. Gage Reeser doubled home a run, New hit another RBI double two batters later and McClellan capped the outburst with a sharp two-run single for a 7-3 lead.
A diving catch in right field and highlight-reel play to get an out at first by Timberline’s shortstop to start the top of the seventh ended any threat of a comeback for Shorewood.
Olson pitched a complete game, struck out four and surrendered three runs on four hits, three walks and a hit batter. McLellan had three hits.
“He really controlled the outside half of the plate to our right-handed hitters,” Tonkin said of Olson. “He threw strikes and his defense worked for him. He’s a good pitcher. … He had good command of the plate.”
Anderson allowed four runs, three earned, over five innings on five hits and six hit batters. He struck out seven. Oliver Truong reached base twice for the Stormrays.
“I’ll take Logan on the mound over anybody anytime,” Tonkin said. “We just came up short. We got a good core for next year. We’ll be alright.”
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