Jay Stout pitched six strong innings of baseball Wednesday morning as Oak Harbor’s AA American Legion team defeated the Stanwood Cannons 9-0 in the first game of the 2009 Junior AA District Tournament at the Skagit Valley Dream Field in Mount Vernon.

Stout scattered six hits and struck out four in six innings of work, while giving up just one walk.

“It was hot today and I felt confident out there on the mound,” Stout said. “We came out with a bang and finished them off.”

The Wildcats scored twice in the bottom of the second inning on a leadoff walk to Kian Mebane followed by a sacrifice bunt by Shea Weaver, who was called safe at first when the throw pulled Stanwood first baseman Steven Titus off the bag.

Nate Young then dropped down a perfect bunt to move both runners up and Wade Burns followed with a walk to load the bases.

J.D Wilcox walked to plate Mebane with the first run and Sam Wolfe hit a line drive off the fence in left field to score Weaver with the second run of the inning.

Oak Harbor made the score 4-0 with two additional

runs in the bottom of the third inning on a one-out single by Brad Farnum, a hit batter, a walk, a passed ball and an RBI single by Young.

Leading 4-0, Stout was in trouble in the top of the fourth inning when Stanwood loaded the bases with two out, but the left-hander struck out Ronnie Alumbaugh to end the threat.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Oak Harbor blew the game wide open scoring five runs on five hits, including a double by Yale Rosen.

“Jay threw the ball pretty well indeed,” coach Tyson Van Dam said. “We felt comfortable starting him because he pitched against Stanwood before and won.”

Stanwood loaded the bases once again in the top of the sixth inning with one out, but Stout got Josh James to bounce back to the mound and promptly cut down Titus at the plate with a throw to Farnum, who then fired the ball to Mebane at first base to complete the double play.

Josh Evans took over the pitching duties for Oak Harbor in the top of the seventh and set the side down in order on a pair of weak ground balls to second baseman Adrian Richards before striking out Patrick Mckenzie to end the game.

Farnum had two hits and scored two runs for the Wildcats, who collected eight hits in the game. Wolfe also had two hits and Rosen scored twice.

Mckenzie and Andrew Bloom had two hits apiece for Cannons.

Oak Harbor 5, Bellingham 3

Oak Harbor did all of its damage against Bellingham in the third inning, scoring five runs in a span of six batters in the second round of the Junior AA American Legion District Tournament Thursday afternoon.

Farnum, Rosen and Mebane had consecutive RBI singles in the stretch. Mebane finished the game with a 3-for-4 effort at the plate and 2 RBI.

Pitchers Jason Bagby and Evans did a great job on the mound for the Wildcats who remain undefeated in the tournament.

Bagby, the right-hander from Coupeville, gave up two runs in four innings of work to pick up the victory.

Evans allowed a leadoff triple to the first Bellingham batter he faced and then settled down giving up only one more hit over three innings of relief.

Both pitchers benefited from errorless defense behind them.

“We got pretty good starting pitching, and we capitalized when we got a chance,” Van Dam said.