First-place Bellingham blanked the Oak Harbor AA Legion baseball team twice this week and put the Wildcats’ bid for a district berth in jeopardy.
Oak Harbor picked up a nonleague win 6-4 Saturday, June 23, over the Northwest Rebels in the only game played in the otherwise rained out Anacortes tournament.
Bellingham (8-0) shutout Oak Harbor 3-0 Tuesday, June 26, at Joe Martin Stadium, then stopped the ‘Cats 7-0 in Oak Harbor Thursday.
That left Oak Harbor 4-6 in league (6-12 overall) and in fifth place with four games left. The top three teams move on to district. The four games are against the two teams directly in front of Oak Harbor in the standings, Snohomish (3-3) and Lynden (5-3).
Oak Harbor plays Snohomish at home at 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 3, then goes to Snohomish two days later. It plays at Lynden July 10 and hosts the Lightning July 12.
First, the Wildcats go to Sedro-Woolley for a nonleague game at 6 p.m. Friday, June 29, and then they travel to Mount Vernon Monday for another nonleaguer.
In the win over Northwest, Oak Harbor mirrored the Rebels as each team scored one run in the first and two in the third. The Wildcats jumped ahead with two runs in the fifth and another in the sixth.
In the first, Grant Schroeder singled and scored on Mike Maletto’s double.
In the third, Brent Mertins doubled and Cory Cameron was hit by a pitch. Mertins scored on an error and Cameron on a single by Daniel Wolfe.
In the fifth, Wolfe walked and Andrew Snavely singled. An error scored Wolfe, then Snavely scored on a fielder’s choice.
In the sixth, Jozef Mendoza singled and, after a wild pitch, scored on Snavely’s base hit.
Snavely finished 3-for-3 with a run and RBI. Maletto had two hits, including a double, and two RBI.
Against Bellingham, Oak Harbor collected only seven hits in the two games, five by Grant Schroeder.
In the first game, Schroeder’s two hits were it. One was a leadoff triple in the fourth, but three strikeouts ended the threat.
Jack Richter pitched a four hitter for Oak Harbor. A pair of walks and two sacrifices scored a Bellingham run in the third. The other two came in the fifth on a single and four Oak Harbor errors.
In Thursday’s game, Oak Harbor struck out nine times and left eight on base to self-destruct offensively.
Schroeder was 3-for-3 with a double.
