Wildcats drop league opener

EVERETT — The Archbishop Thomas Murphy baseball team battled to the final out in last week’s Northwest 1A League opener.

If there had been an extra inning or two, the Wildcats might have come out on top, but there wasn’t and the Lions kept their unblemished record intact with a 6-4 victory April 2 at Archbishop Murphy High School.

Wildcats coach Ed Gay was disappointed with the loss but not with his players’ effort.

Archbishop Murphy spotted Concrete a 4-0 lead in the top of the first but chipped away at the deficit and scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh to draw to within 6-4 before the Lions jettisoned the comeback attempt.

“The guys stayed with it and we knew we had a chance,” Gay said. “We knew our bats would come through for us … all in all, the guys did pretty well for our first league game. I think we were a little uptight.”

The Archbishop Murphy offense struggled with a lack of aggressiveness at the plate until the seventh inning when the Wildcats finally started catching up to Concrete pitcher Kyle Wilson.

The Lions’ ace is regarded by many as the top pitcher in the league.

“We’re a fastball hitting team, so that’s what we were looking for,” Gay said. “A couple of times we sat back and waited and we weren’t aggressive at the plate. We’ve been talking about being aggressive and telling guys that ‘you’re looking for the fastball on the first pitch, so let’s jump on it.’

“Early on we didn’t. I think there at the end we did.”

The Wildcats’ first league game was marred by a difficult first inning for junior pitcher Chris Mitchell, who allowed four runs. Mitchell was lit up for a double and a pair of triples.

Gay thought Mitchell’s problem was pitch location and more specifically that his pitches were up.

“We had to get the ball down and we were talking about it between innings,” Gay said. “I said, ‘You’re more effective with your ball down and you’re getting the ball up, so they’re getting some good cuts on you’ and that’s what they did. They hit him hard … it was just that his ball was up and he needed to work hard getting the ball down.”

Mitchell corrected the problem and in the five subsequent innings he pitched Concrete scored only two more runs. Senior Nick Karthas pitched the seventh inning.

By keeping the ball down, Mitchell allowed his defense to make the plays.

“If he can make the ball come down where they hit it on the ground then we’ll make the plays,” Gay said.

Archbishop Murphy came into its league opener with a 2-2 preseason record. Unfortunately, some of the offensive woes in those four games carried over to the Concrete contest.

Gay told his players they needed to be more aggressive at the plate.

“Hopefully they learned and this is a good (game) for them to learn on because it counts,” Gay said. “We probably should have talked about it a little more in practice … but it’s something for us to work on now.”

In the bottom of the first, Wildcat junior Patrick Ackerman led off with a double and subsequently scored on a double by Karthas, which cut the Concrete advantage to 4-1. The Lions added a run in the top of the third and a run in the fifth to take a 6-1 lead.

Archbishop Murphy then cut the lead to 6-2 in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by junior Alex Burch, which scored sophomore courtesy runner Jake Lyons.

Wilson struck out nine in a complete-game effort and helped himself with a double, a triple and three RBI.

“I think this (game) is indicative of our league,” Gay said. “We’ve got four teams that are gong to battle it out and hopefully we’re one of those four.

“It was our first league game. We’ve got a long ways to go.”

Archbishop Murphy rebounded Tuesday with a 6-5 victory over Friday Harbor. Ian Telge hit a solo home run to break a 5-5 tie and Karthas pitched a complete game, as the Wildcats improved to 1-1 in the league and 3-3 overall.