Failure to execute the fundamentals, particularly when a baseball team knows the score is going to be close even before the first pitch is thrown, often means the difference between winning and losing.
When Oak Harbor hosted Snohomish on Friday with three-year starting pitcher Nick Hammons on the mound for the Panthers, Wildcat coach Jim Waller knew it was going to be a low scoring game.
Hammons pitched seven shutout innings giving up five hits while striking out five and walking two to hand the Wildcats their third league loss of the season, 3-0.
Waller said he was pleased with Oak Harbor starting pitcher Marshall Lobbestael’s performance, but disappointed with the Wildcats’ failure to execute the bunting game.
“Marshall pitched a great game, he just didn’t get any help,” Waller said. “We just didn’t execute today. We had four or five chances where we wanted to bunt and couldn’t get a bunt down. Two of them I remember ended up hurting us. If we could have gotten the bunt down, the next guy followed up with a base hit. On one of them we hit into a double play and the next guy got a double right after that. That was a killer.”
Snohomish scored its first run in the top of the fourth inning on a leadoff single by Hammons, a stolen base and a double by Ethan Hargrave.
Brian Wolfe doubled to lead off the sixth inning for the Panthers and Aaron Reynolds connected for a two out single to make the score 2-0.
“We had a good game defensively and made just one error, I can live with that,” Waller said. “It’s just disappointing that Marshall pitched so well and everybody else didn’t do their part. It’s just those little execution things that we didn’t do. In a close game like this, those are important.”
The Panthers scored their final run in the top of the seventh inning on an infield error, a double by Travis Cuykendall and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Deker Jones.
James Cardinal stroked a fourth inning double for the Wildcats’ only extra base hit.
Oak Harbor, 2-3 in league games and 3-5 overall, hosts Everett Thursday in a 4 p.m. game.
