Tomahawks end Warriors’ postseason run

EVERETT— The Edmonds-Woodway baseball team ended its district playoff run much like it has played the regular season — battling to the final out.

But this time there would be no comeback for the Warriors.

Marysville-Pilchuck defeated Edmonds-Woodway 6-2 in a loser-out Northwest District 4A tournament game May 17 at Everett Memorial Stadium.

Trailing by four runs in the bottom of the seventh, junior Nick Spiess and senior John Gegax both stroked consecutive singles to start the inning and kept the Warriors’ postseason aspirations alive.

Edmonds-Woodway then hit into a costly double play that nevertheless scored Spiess from third. The Warriors’ season, however, came to an end when the next batter struck out to end the game.

Marysville-Pilchuck later defeated Lake Stevens 6-4 to claim the district’s No. 3 berth to the state tournament.

Senior first baseman Ian Gac was the on-deck batter and was hoping he would get at least one more at bat when the game ended. Despite the deficit, the mood on the Edmonds-Woodway bench was anything but bleak, especially after the two singles to open the inning.

“We’ve had some exciting games this year — coming back from eight runs in the bottom of the seventh,” Gac said. “I thought we could do it again today. I really thought we had a good chance.”

If there was one thing that Warrior coach Joe Webster learned this season it was to never count his team out no matter what the deficit.

“That’s why we made it as far as we did because they don’t quit and they keep battling,” Webster said.

Marysville-Pilchuck pitcher Jesse Schmidt allowed seven hits in a complete-game effort. Schmidt kept the ball down and had an effective curve ball, Gac said.

In the sixth inning, Schmidt looked to be in trouble after issuing a pair of walks and then hitting Andrew Hutt to load the bases.

Schmidt then got the next batter to hit into a rally-ending double play. Edmonds-Woodway hit into three double plays in the game, something that also hurt the Warriors in a 6-0 loss to Mount Vernon in the semifinals on May 14.

“I bet that we’ve only hit into four or five double plays all year long and in the last two games, I think we’ve hit into six or seven,” Webster said. “A double play in high school baseball, any baseball, is just a real rally killer and we seemed to hit into them.”

Webster and Gac both noted that Edmonds-Woodway (15-7-1 overall) made good contact against Schmidt all day. The Marysville-Pilchuck junior only had four strikeouts.

“It just didn’t bounce our way,” Gac said. “We were hitting balls hard right at people. You can’t do anything about that. We were doing what we were supposed to do — hit the ball hard.”

Marysville-Pilchuck’ Josh Short hit a two-RBI single to left field to give the Tomahawks a 2-0 first inning lead. Marysville-Pilchuck added on run in the third on a sacrifice fly by Short.

Edmonds-Woodway cut the lead to 3-1 with a two-out rally in the fourth. Senior catcher Josh Waite drew a walk to start the inning and then after a pair of outs moved to third on a single by junior third baseman Jake Beattiger. Junior left fielder David Dwyer then hit a ball to center field that dropped to score Waite.

A pair of hit batters contributed to a two-run fifth inning for the Tomahawks. Edmonds-Woodway pitcher Gegax hit leadoff hitter James Day. Then after recording an out, Gegax struck Nic Benton, which moved courtesy runner Matt Dale to second base. Both runners moved up a base when the ball got away from the catcher. Short then hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Dale. An error on a ball hit to deep right field allowed Benton to score as Marysville-Pilchuck took a 5-1 advantage. The Tomahawks added another run in the sixth inning.

“We’ve had a lot of breaks this year and today we just didn’t get any,” Webster said. “It just happens.”

Gac was one of only six seniors on what was a relatively young team. Coming into the season, he wasn’t sure what kind of a team Edmonds-Woodway would be.

“Before the season, I thought maybe we’d finish dead last in the league. I didn’t know,” Gac said. “But after the first game, I saw everybody was just competitive. Everyone knew their roles. Everybody knew what they were expected to do and everybody filled their part.”

Webster noted that even though the Warriors played a lot of underclassmen, the seniors played significant roles.

“All the seniors we had were real key guys,” Webster said. “The seniors that we had were all big contributors and very important. They’re not going to be easy to replace. So we’ve got our work cut out for us next year to try and get back here.”