The Oak Harbor High School baseball team beat visiting Everett 9-8 in an 11-inning thriller Tuesday, April 5, but fell 9-6 at Everett the following afternoon.
The two teams will complete their three-game Wesco North series when they meet in Oak Harbor at 4 p.m. Friday, April 8.
Although the Wildcats won Tuesday, Oak Harbor coach Tyson VanDam was frustrated with his team’s execution. First, the defense broke down. The Seagulls scored seven unearned runs and built a 7-2 lead going into the bottom of the fourth inning.
Once Oak Harbor rallied to get back into the game, the offense struggled to move runners up. In five of the final six innings, the Wildcats put their leadoff hitter on base but failed each time to bunt him to second.
Oak Harbor finally won the game in the bottom of the 11th. Trent Benson led off with a walk and Kevyn Johnson followed with another base on balls. After a strikeout, Benson was thrown out at the plate on a base hit by Robert Herring to left field. Preston Rankin then ended the marathon with a single that scored Johnson.
Sloppy defense helped the Seagulls score two runs in the first inning, three in the third and two more in the fourth.
Everett added another unearned run in the sixth, when Tyler Snavely took over on the mound and blanked the Seagulls the rest of the way. In six innings, he walked four, struck out four and gave up two hits.
Oak Harbor’s first run came in the second inning when Dylan Bailey reached on an error and scored on another error.
In the third, Herring was hit by a pitch and scored on a Rankin single.
Oak Harbor jumped back into the game and took an 8-7 lead with four runs in the fourth and two in the fifth.
All the runs in the fourth inning were scored with two outs with the help of hits by Steven Richards, James Besaw, Benson, Johnson and Snavely.
In the fifth, singles by Bailey and Richards and a walk to Besaw filled the bases. Brandon Philp was hit by a pitch to force in one run. Besaw later scored on a passed ball.
Eight of Oak Harbor’s nine starters recorded hits in the game, led by Rankin with three. Benson and Richards each rapped two; and Johnson, Snavely, Herring, Bailey and Besaw had one each.
Wednesday, Oak Harbor again fell into an early hole. Trailing 5-0 going into the fifth inning the Wildcats tied the game with the help of a single by Benson and a bases-clearing double by Rankin.
The Seagulls responded immediately with four runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth to pull away.
Johnson ripped an RBI single in the seventh for Oak Harbor’s final run.
Oak Harbor was missing three starters for the game but that wasn’t a problem, according to assistant coach JR Calderwood, because the “bottom of the lineup battled really well” and scored five of Wildcats’ six runs.
He also noted that Rankin, who had five hits and five RBI in the two games, “is definitely coming into his own and looks to be finding his stride.”
The split set Oak Harbor’s league record at 1-2 (3-4-1 overall). Everett is 1-2 and 4-4.
(Left: Caleb Fitzgerald slides under the tag of Everett’s Bryan Greene.
Below: Kevyn Johnson slashes a base hit.
Photos by John Fisken.)
