EVERETT – Improbabilities keep becoming reality for the Marysville-Pilchuck baseball team.
Throw out the odds. The Tomahawks aren’t interested in statistics and likelihoods.
Down five runs for the second straight time this week, the Tomahawks used a six-run fifth-inning Saturday at Everett Memorial Stadium to beat Edmonds-Woodway 8-5 in the 4A District One championship game.
Marysville-Pilchuck (19-4) will play a state regional first-round playoff game, 11 a.m. Saturday at Everett Memorial.
Following its loss to the Tommies, Edmonds-Woodway earned the district’s second berth at state with a 13-5 victory against Lake Stevens.
How bizarre have things been lately for the Tommies?
* Marysville-Pilchuck won its first district title since 1985, which was also the last time the Tomahawks won a league title.
* Down 5-0 to one of the district’s best pitchers, M-P scored once in the fourth and five times in the fifth against Edmonds-Woodway’s Reed Brown.
* Donny Treat, who was two years away from being born the last time Marysville-Pilchuck won a baseball title of any kind, entered Saturday’s game with a grand total of one home run this season. The junior left fielder pounded Brown’s high fastball over the right-center wall for a home run that traveled approximately 390 feet. Treat, not accustomed to such measurements, had a different estimate.
“Probably about 500 feet or so,” Treat said with a grin.
“I was just trying to get a base hit and drive a couple in,” Treat added. “I just wanted to set up the next batter.”
The Tommies threatened to break things open an inning earlier, but managed only one run.
Josh Short walked, Treat and Brady Knuth each singled and Jared Neyens doubled. Knuth drove in Short, but two M-P baserunners were thrown out to keep the damage to a minimum.
M-P, which overcame a 5-0 deficit to beat Kamiak 6-5 on Tuesday, made no such mistakes in the fifth.
Short drove in the first two runs with a single down the right field line. After James Day was hit by a pitch and Short singled, Treat’s home run gave M-P the lead for good. Carl Benton’s bloop single just inside the right field line scored Knuth for a 7-5 M-P lead.
“We’ve been able to come back a couple of times this year, so we know we’re never out of it,” Rosenbach said. “We hit the ball fairly well, so it’s just a matter of getting guys on base, adjusting to what (Brown) was doing and getting some clutch hits.”
Coming from behind against Kamiak and a few other times this season allowed the Tomahawks to maintain their confidence.
“That’s just our thing, I guess,” said Treat, who finished the game 2-for-3 with four RBI and was also hit by a pitch. “We start off slow and step up.”
Edmonds-Woodway (19-4) wasted no time getting runs on the board. Titus Lester and Mark Gegax scrapped out infield singles and Derek Lange was hit by a pitch to load the bases with none out in the first. Kyle Torgerson drove in the game’s first run with a sacrifice fly. Andrew Hutt – who finished the game 2-for-3 with two RBI – and Blaine Hardy followed with two-out, RBI-singles to give the Warriors a 3-0 lead.
E-W tacked on two more runs in the third.
Cleanup hitter Jake Beattiger doubled off the wall in left center and was sacrificed to third by Torgerson. He scored on Hutt’s sacrifice fly. Hardy followed with a walk and went to second when Jordan Cooper was hit by a pitch. No. 9 hitter Nate Bennett doubled to left center, scoring Hardy for a 5-0 lead.
Knuth pitched 11/3 shutout innings to earn the win. He played stellar defense at third base for the remainder of the game and was 3-for-4 with an RBI. Neyens, who started at shortstop and went 3-for-3, pitched the final 12/3 innings for the save.
Brown went the distance for Edmonds-Woodway and struck out six.
At Everett Championship game
Marysville-Pil.0001601-8112
Edmonds-Wood.3020000-581
Waters, Knuth (5), Neyens (6) and Day. Brown and Torgerson. WP-Knuth. LP-Brown. 2B-Beattiger (E-W), Bennett (E-W), Neyens (M-P), Knuth (M-P). HR-Treat (M-P). Records-Marysville-Pilchuck 19-4 overall.
Edmonds-Woodway 13, Lake Stevens 5: After Lake Stevens scored five runs in the top of the third inning of the winner-to-state, loser-out playoff game, the Warriors sent 17 batters to the plate and scored 13 runs in the bottom of the inning. The Warriors will play a state regional game Saturday at Kent Memorial Stadium.
All nine Warriors scored a run in the third. All but one E-W batter had an RBI in the inning, which featured seven hits, four walks and two Lake Stevens errors.
No. 8 hitter David Dwyer and No. 9 hitter Nate Bennett each had two hits in the inning.
All of the game’s runs and all but three of the hits were in the third inning.
“I’ve never seen anything like that,” E-W coach Joe Webster said. “I’ve seen some ugly games late in the tournament that are 18-14 or something like that, but I can’t say that I’ve ever seen an 18-run inning when the rest was all zeroes.”
E-W reliever Andrew Hutt shutout the Vikings for the final 42/3 inning to earn the win.
At Everett Second-place game
Lake Stevens0050000-572
E-Woodway00(13)0000-1382
Strong, Verdugo (3), Fiske (3), Talley (6) and Crain. Beattiger, Hutt (3) and Torgerson. WP-Hutt. LP-Verdugo. 2B-Shields (LS), Lange (E-W). Records-Lake Stevens 18-7 overall. Edmonds-Woodway 20-4.
Consolation, loser out
Stanwood0010000-130
Lake Stevens320100x-6101
Wickstrom, Emnott (3), Davis (6) and Northrup. Stevens and Crain. WP-Stevens. LP-Wickstrom (3-1). 2B-Northrup (S), Fields (LS), Crain (LS), Fiske (LS). Records-Stanwood 15-8 overall.
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