By John McDonald
Prep Editor
SNOHOMISH – The Snohomish Panthers had their hands wrapped around a playoff victory, but their grip wasn’t tight enough.
Shorewood scored three runs in the top of the seventh inning to snatch the win away by a 4-3 score Wednesday in the first round of the Class 4A Northwest District baseball tournament at Snohomish H.S.
“I feel like we played a great game, but we let one get away,” Snohomish coach Kim Hammons said. “Shorewood came back. They did it in the clutch.”
Shorewood advanced to today’s semifinals and will play Cascade at 7 p.m. at Everett Memorial Stadium.
Snohomish will play Mountlake Terrace in a loser-out game at 7 p.m. today at Marysville-Pilchuck H.S.
Shorewood’s game-winning rally began with an infield single by Trent Kristjanson, who then stole second base. Howard Sanders followed with a run-scoring double to left field.
Kevin Young’s grounder glanced off the pitcher’s glove for another infield hit, giving Shorewood runners at first and third with no outs. After Young stole second, Sanders scored the tying run and Young moved to third on Shea Tonkin’s groundout.
Young tagged and scored the winning run on a sacrifice fly by winning pitcher Joel Rezendes.
“That was a huge sacrifice fly,” Hammons said. “We had them 3-1 and let them off the hook. But you’ve got to credit Shorewood.
“We had opportunities and didn’t capitalize.”
Snohomish broke a scoreless tie in the third inning on Steve Sperry’s leadoff home run to left. The Panthers later tallied another run in the inning on a double steal. Tyler Christensen and Derek Bennion both had singles to reach first and third before pulling off the double theft.
Jeff Schomacher countered for Shorewood with a home run to lead off the fourth. And Shorewood nearly tied the score in the fifth, but Snohomish first baseman Josh Roberts made a nifty throw to third to throw out a runner after pitcher Cody McAllister’s pickoff throw went down the right field line. The next Shorewood batter singled and would have driven in the tying run had that baserunner reached third.
McAllister took a two-hitter into the seventh. He finished with 12 strikeouts.
“That’s the best pitcher we’ve faced all year,” Shorewood coach Wyatt Tonkin said. “He had excellent stuff.
“I told our kids to keep chipping away.”
Rezendes allowed one baserunner in the bottom of the seventh on a third-strike wild pitch. But Snohomish couldn’t convert.
“That was a terrific performance by Joel,” Tonkin said. “I told him, ‘It’s your game.’ and he said, ‘I’ll get it for you.’”
Rezendes and Tonkin. McAllister and Adams-Christensen WP-Rezendes. LP-McAllister. 2B-Sanders (Swd). HR-Sperry (Sno), Schomacher (Swd). Records-Shorewood 16-5 overall. Snohomish 15-6.
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