Warriors, Scots split wild series

SHORELINE — After last week’s crowd-pleasing 27-run, 35-hit slugfest for the ages, expectations ran high for Tuesday’s rematch between Edmonds-Woodway and Shorecrest.

The classic, back-and-forth battle — which saw Edmonds-Woodway survive five lead changes to escape with a 14-13 win — was still a hot topic in the stands when the Western Conference 4A South Division baseball rivals completed their series.

But some crafty pitching from Shorecrest’s Jordan Olsen and Edmonds-Woodway’s Reed Brown squelched the chances of another high-octane scoring spree.

The right-handers each allowed six hits in six innings, but the Scots strung more of their’s together and emerged with a 4-3 victory, snapping Edmonds-Woodway’s eight-game winning streak.

“Both pitchers threw the ball well. They got some two-out, RBI hits and we didn’t,” Warriors coach Joe Webster said. “We hit the ball in the air a little too much. You don’t have a chance to advance runners or hit into an error now and then when you hit fly balls.”

Trailing by two, Edmonds-Woodway finally got to Olsen in the top of the seventh, forcing a pitching change with one out and runners on first and second.

Matt Crosbie sliced an RBI single to right field and the runners advanced to second and third when relief pitcher A.J. Collins lost the handle on John Gegax’s crisp line drive. But Collins got the next batter to pop up for the final out.

“There’s been a lot of games when we’re behind early,” Webster said. “Not too many when we’re behind late.”

The Warriors took a 1-0 lead in the third when Titus Lester led off with a single to center and stole second. Gegax’s grounder sent Lester to third and he came around to score on another ground ball to short.

Shorecrest responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning. Clete Barrick and Brian Jackson singled and first baseman J.J. Berg drove a bases-loaded, two-run single up the middle.

In the fourth the Scots made it 4-1 on an RBI single by Jackson followed by Derek DuPree’s RBI double to left field.

“When they needed the big hit, they got the big hit,” Webster said.

Both sides enjoyed plenty of big hits during last week’s offensive overflow.

Jake Beattiger was 5-for-5 with two doubles and three RBI, including the game-winner for the Warriors. Josh Waite was 3-for-4 with three RBI, Andrew Hutt was 3-for-4, Steve Quealey was 2-for-5 with three RBI and Ian Gac hit a home run and drove in three runs.

“Hitting or a lack of hitting are both contagious,” Webster said. “That’s why you see a lot of games that are either high scoring or low scoring. You don’t see a lot in between. If a guy sees their teammates out there hitting, they believe they can too.”

For Shorecrest, DuPree was 4-for-4 with a pair of home runs and five RBI and Jackson was 3-for-5 with three RBI. Brian Perry was 3-for-3 with three runs, Collins was 3-for-4 and Berg was 2-for-4.

“We matched each other hit for hit, home run for home run, double for double. It was incredible,” Medalia said. “The most encouraging thing was neither team rolled over. Both teams battled and battled. There was no give-up on either side.”

Depending on the outcome of this week’s series with Everett, Edmonds-Woodway (11-3 league, 12-3 overall) could still have a chance at catching league-leading Kamiak. When the teams meet next week to conclude the regular season, the division crown might be on the line.

“I’m not even going to worry about that other stuff until we get through Everett,” Webster said. “The Kamiak series may mean everything, or it may mean nothing. It really depends on what happens with Everett.”