Ferndale eliminates Shorecrest baseball

Published 6:07 pm Saturday, May 10, 2008

James Robbins and Shorecrest went down, but not without a fight.

The Scots had the lead early, lost it, then tied it before finally succumbing to third-ranked Ferndale in a loser-out 3A District 1 playoff game May 10 at Sherman Anderson Field in Mount Vernon.

A two-run double by Spencer Hannah and RBI single by Jordan Carr in the bottom of the sixth inning broke a tie and gave Ferndale the eventual 12-9 win.

Shorecrest led 5-1 at one point, after scoring three two-out runs in the second and adding two runs without a hit in the third off Ferndale starter Casey Locker.

But Ferndale, the Northwest League champions, battled back in the bottom of the third. Locker led off with a home run off Robbins, who then began to struggle to find the strike zone. Robbins walked five batters in the inning and walked in two runs.

Despite walking nine in four innings, Robbins, who picked up the win in a five-inning stint against Sedro-Woolley in loser-out game May 6, left with a 5-4 lead.

That evaporated in the fifth.

Willie Davies relieved Robbins, but his control wasn’t much better. Davies walked Jake Hoffman on a 1-2 pitch and hit Tristan Higgerson. Kyle McKay’s bunt was fielded by Davies, who threw to third and Hoffman was called safe, to load the bases. Davies coaxed a grounder out of Max Hannah and threw home for the first out of the inning. But a walk to Spencer Hannah tied the score. Casey Locker popped up to shortstop Chad Morrison, but Carr followed with a two-run double.

Philip Lange, pinch-hitting for Keith Mader, who had struck out three times, singled to drive in two more runs to make it 9-5.

It looked like that might be the end of the road for Shorecrest against Ferndale, a team the Scots beat in the district tournament last year.

But Robbins, who didn’t play in the Scots 6-1 loss to Ferndale in the first round, had another trick up his sleeve.

In the top of the sixth, the Scots loaded the bases on a walk to Ian Benbrooks, a single to Josh Leupold and a walk to Stefan Orallo. With two outs, up stepped the left-handed hitting Robbins who absolutely crushed an offering from Locker well beyond the right field fence, coming to rest underneath a barn. The grand slam tied the game and the Scots poured out of the dugout to hug Robbins and slap him on the helmet.

Robbins missed the first game because he had to attend an astronomy fair at school.

“I definitely wanted to prove something,” he said. “I never like missing games. It was a school thing and grades are important…I really wanted to be there.”

But in the bottom of the sixth, Davies surrendered the go-ahead runs and took the loss. He pitched two innings in relief of Robbins and gave up eight runs on five hits, walked four, struck out one and hit a batter. In his previous outing, Davies pitched a complete-game one-hitter in a must-win game against Mount Vernon. He walked two and struck out four in what he called the best outing of his career.

Robbins pitched four innings, allowed two hits and four runs, walking nine, hitting one and striking out seven.

“They’re a great hitting team. I didn’t have my best stuff today on the mound. Those are the days where you have to go out there and battle,” Robbins said.

Ferndale’s Locker, a cousin of University of Washington quarterback Jake Locker, gave up seven hits and nine runs, while walking five, hitting one and striking out seven to earn the win.

Shorecrest finished the season 7-17. Ferndale went on to beat Everett and earn the second district berth to state.