League-leading E-W blows off Shorecrest

EDMONDS — Shorecrest found out it takes more than blustery conditions to capsize the league-leading Edmonds-Woodway baseball team.

The Warriors fought through a precarious climate Tuesday afternoon to outlast Shorecrest 9-6 and maintain their position atop the Wesco 4A South Division standings.

The rain let up minutes before the first pitch, but the wind never stopped swirling, dust was constantly blowing and routine fly balls were carrying into the outfield netting.

“I’ve never played a game in weather like this,” E-W coach Joe Webster said. “It made it interesting. If you got a ball up in the air, anything could happen.”

After the Scots put up four runs in the top of the second, the Warriors responded with five runs in the bottom of the inning.

Alex Nipert started Shorecrest’s spurt with an infield single, the first of four consecutive hits. Kevin Mahler tripled to center, Michael Burgher and Chad Friske smacked back-to-back doubles and A.J. Collins reached safely on an overthrow.

E-W’s rally began with Blaine Hardy’s triple, Derek Lange’s single and a walk and was prolonged when the Scots botched a potential double-play ball with one out and the bases loaded.

Two more walks followed and another run scored on Andrew Hutt’s bases-loaded, one-out grounder to first. Kyle Torgerson added an RBI double off the net in center for the Warriors in the third before Shorecrest pulled even at 6-all in the fourth.

Mahler doubled and scored on an error for the Scots and Tim Workman drove in the tying run with a one-out grounder to first.

The wind became a factor in the fifth, when the Scots couldn’t track down Jake Beattiger’s pop-up and Titus Lester came around to score from second base.

E-W then employed some crafty baserunning to take an 8-6 lead. While Mark Gegax was caught in a rundown between first and second, Beattiger scooted home from third base.

Jordan Cooper capped the scoring by cranking a home run to left to lead off the bottom of the sixth. The Warriors went on to load the bases with one out, but hit into a double play to end the threat.

E-W needed extra innings to get by the Scots when the teams first met April 23. Three walks, an error and a pair of squeeze plays in the top of the 12th helped the Warriors pull out a 5-2 win. Both sides scored two runs in the first then went scoreless the next 10 innings.

“They didn’t hit the ball out of the infield and they got three runs off us,” Medalia said. “We failed to execute.”

With the two losses the Scots fell to 6-8 in league play and 8-8 overall, but still own a two-game edge over Meadowdale in the race for Wesco’s top seed to the Northwest District 3A playoffs.

Prior to the E-W series, Shorecrest split its two-game set with second-place Kamiak. Medalia felt that four consecutive games against the two teams vying for the Wesco South title will help prepare the Scots for the postseason.

“They’re both playoff teams right at the top of our league,” he said. “These are good teams who are in the playoffs every year. Our kids responded pretty well.”