Wolfpack loses heartbreaker

EVERETT — Jackson’s month-long 13-game winning streak was cut short by an Edmonds-Woodway team that simply would not quit.

The Warriors fell behind three times in Tuesday night’s Northwest District 4A baseball playoff game and also surrendered a two-run home run that tied the score in the top of the seventh inning.

But Edmonds-Woodway found a way to win.

Junior shortstop Mark Gegax stroked a two-run single to center field in the bottom of the eighth to lead the Warriors to a 10-9 come-from-behind victory at Everett Memorial Stadium.

“It was a great baseball game,” Jackson coach Kirk Nicholson said. “They are a good team. We are a good team. It comes down to a couple of balls get through an infield. It’s that simple.”

The loss sent Jackson into a loser-out game the next night against Stanwood, which the Wolfpack lost 14-7.

The Timberwolves finished the season 16-7 overall.

Gegax was doing everything he could to stay calm under the most trying of circumstances.

“You just try to do what you’ve been doing all year,” he said. “You just don’t think too much about the pressure and try to get the job done. It’s a pretty simple game when it comes down to it.”

Trailing 9-8 in the bottom of the eighth, Edmonds-Woodway junior Nate Bennett beat out an infield grounder to short and advanced to second base on Titus Lester’s single to center field.

Both runners moved up a base on a bunt by Derek Lange.

Gegax then stepped to the plate and responded the way Edmonds-Woodway coach Joe Webster hoped he would.

“He gets his hits. They seem like quiet hits,” Webster said. “It’s not like he hits the ball out of the park. He’s been real good for us, especially the last two weeks getting the big hits when we needed them and tonight was no exception.”

Said Nicholson, “They hit the ball. They did things right and I thought we did too. I’ve got no complaints about my kids.”

Edmonds-Woodway (19-3) faces Marysville-Pilchuck in a winner-to-state district championship game at 2 p.m. tomorrow (Saturday, May 15) at Everett Memorial Stadium. Marysville-Pilchuck defeated Kamiak 6-5 in the other semifinal game.

The loser of the district championship can still earn a berth to state with a victory in a 5 p.m. winner-to-state/loser out contest.

No matter what happens, Webster said that winning a game like they did Tuesday changes the way the players view the game.

“The key to a game like this is you know that no matter what happens from here on out that your guys aren’t going to quit,” Webster said. “They aren’t going to think the game is over, which is something we talk about all the time … (when) they see it happen, they don’t feel like I’m just saying that. It’s really true.”

Jackson took a 2-0 lead in the first on a mammoth home run to right field by Snider. The lead, however, was short lived.

Edmonds-Woodway came right back in the bottom of the first with three runs. Jake Beattiger had a two-run double and scored on a throwing error by the pitcher.

The Timberwolves tied the score at 3 with a run in the fourth and added three more in the fifth to take a 6-3 lead.

The Warriors then rallied for four runs in the fifth and one run in the sixth to reclaim a 8-6 lead.

Edmonds-Woodway starter Blaine Hardy retired the leadoff hitter and then walked Kawika Pai in the seventh. Snider followed with a home run that cleared the center-field fence to tie the score at 8.

Snider was 2-for-4 with two home runs and four RBI.

“He’s been doing it all year,” Nicholson said of Snider’s performance. “We’ve kind of come to expect it. It’s just another day for him.”

Webster had thoughts about pulling Hardy prior to Snider’s seventh-inning at-bat but decided against it.

“I like to give the pitcher an opportunity to work their way out of their own mess if I think they still have good enough stuff,” Webster said. “The ball (Snider) hit out was a ball. It was a curve ball around the eye. He went up and got it and tomahawked it out of the park.”

Reliever Justin Christensen was brought in and recorded two outs to halt the Timberwolves’ rally.

Jackson’s momentum carried over into the eighth. The Wolfpack pushed across a run to take a 9-8 lead.

John Wahl doubled to center field and advanced to third on a wild pitch. After the next batter struck out, Joey Petosa laid down a suicide squeeze bunt that scored Wahl for the go-ahead run.

But the mood on the Edmonds-Woodway bench was anything but glum.

“This team has incredible drive,” Gegax said. “I knew we were going to come back and get it done. I don’t even care what happened. We were just going to get it done.”