Jackson tumbles in district opener

MILL CREEK

Marysville-Pilchuck coach Kurt Koshelnik is never sure what to expect out of his baseball team’s offense.

Heading into a 4A District 1 playoff game against Jackson, the Tomahawks had scored 10 or more runs seven times this season and been held to three or less runs eight times.

“We’re hit and miss with the bats,” Koshelnik said. “We swing it well one day then we have games where we struggle a little bit.”

In the May 5 10-0 five-inning win at Jackson, Marysville-Pilchuck’s bats were a lot more hit than miss.

The Tomahawks jumped ahead with a six-run first inning, then tacked on two more runs in the second and third innings. Mike Gange started the big inning with a one-out walk. That was followed by a Ryan DiMascio single and an RBI single for Riley Gilbertson. Ryan Botham added a two-out, two-run double, which was followed by an RBI single by Josh Bartlett, a double by Joe Bray and two-run double by Tyler Holm.

“That’s the best thing you can do in baseball,” said Gilbertson, who finished 3-for-4 with three RBI. “You get a great lead and come out there with momentum, backup your pitcher, it’s big.”

Pitching with a big lead, M-P senior right-hander Frankie Nelson threw strikes and relied on a solid defensive effort to shut out the Timberwolves. Nelson retired the first 10 Jackson batters, and allowed only one base runner on an Isaac Kim single in the fourth.

“I had a big lead so I went after hitters, and they just hit it right to my defense,” said Nelson, who improved to 4-2. “The run support helped out. It made the difference. It’s easy to pitch with a six-run lead.”

Nelson and his coach said that good fortune aided the Tomahawks’ good play.

“We caught a lot of breaks today, a lot of breaks,” Koshelnik said. “They were hitting screamers at people and ours seemed to fall in. What could go wrong was going wrong for them. We were pretty fortunate.”

Koshelnik, a first-year head coach, was facing a former coach for the first time in Jackson’s Kirk Nicholson. A 1996 graduate of Everett High School, Koshelnik played for Nicholson’s Everett Legion team.

“It was fun,” Koshelnik said. “He was a former coach of mine and I’ve learned a lot from him, and it was nice to beat him. I’m not going to lie; it was nice to beat him.”

“What’s nice about it is that this isn’t our last game, thank goodness,” said Nicholson. “This would really be a bad way to end your season. It’s a tough start of the tournament though.”