The Boyd-Buchanan Buccaneers and the Silverdale Baptist Academy Seahawks played a crucial baseball doubleheader on Saturday with first place in District 5-A on the line.
Both teams entered play for the first game at Silverdale sporting identical 6-0 district records, but you would never have known it by the way that first game was played.
In a see-saw game where the side was retired in order only once (that happening in the bottom of the seventh), the Buccaneers got the last laugh in the first game with a 9-7 victory after scoring the eventual winning run in the top of the seventh.
The second game at Boyd-Buchanan wasn't much better, but the Seahawks were able to win that one 10-6 before the game was called by bad weather with one out in the bottom of the seventh.
These two teams didn’t win those 12 district games by playing bad defense and getting questionable pitching, but both were suspect in Saturday’s first game as the two squads combined for 16 runs on 22 hits and 11 total errors.
It looked more like a little league affair than a couple of better-than-average high school teams, but baseball is a crazy sport and there are times when pre-game predictions mean nothing.
“That was a huge district win, but now we have to turn right around and play them again this afternoon,” said Boyd-Buchanan coach Taylor Gilley after his team had improved to 10-6 overall and 7-0 in district play.
“That was a crazy game for sure, but we kept hitting it, we kept battling and we never hung our heads. Those were some huge home runs and we needed them all, but I’m just proud of the fight we showed and the fact we never gave up,” Gilley added.
Silverdale coach Gray Ange could only shake his head when the final out had been recorded.
“That was ugly baseball as we played their game, but there’s no doubt in my mind we’re much better than what you just watched,” he said after his team’s record dropped to 15-5 overall and 6-1 in district play.
“We dug ourselves a hole at the start, but were able to battle back. We’ve been doing that all season, but we just didn’t make the big plays when we needed them. Things just didn’t go our way in this game, but the good news is we don’t have to sleep on it,” he said, knowing the second game would be starting in just over an hour.
The Buccaneers scored at least one run in five of the seven innings, but none were any bigger than three in the top of the seventh.
Michael Hawkins had come through with a big two-out, two-run double in the bottom of the sixth to give the Seahawks a 7-6 lead, but in a game where the lead changed hands five times, it wasn’t enough.
Thomas Baker led off the Buccaneer seventh with a walk before Cade Evans flied to right for the first out. Jax Price then reached on Silverdale’s fifth error of the game. Colby Morgan then singled to load the bases before Baker scored the tying run on a two-out single by Eli Evans.
The ball skipped past the Seahawk outfielder as Price and Morgan both scored.
Right-hander Bray Wilson, who had come on in relief of southpaw Casey Pate in the fifth, earned the win with a 1-2-3 seventh, despite giving up four runs on seven hits.
The Bucs scored twice in the first before Silverdale cut that lead in half in the bottom of the inning. It was obvious at that point that this wasn’t going to be a typical game and that virtually anything could and would happen.
Morgan’s solo home run to deep left extended the Bucs’ lead to 3-1 while a bases-loaded walk to the big first baseman made it 4-1 in the fourth.
Noah Rogers and Tyler Mossburg both had RBI-singles in the bottom of the fourth as Silverdale got within 4-3 while an error and another run-scoring single by Rogers allowed the Seahawks to lead for the first time with two runs in the bottom of the fifth.
Cade Evans led off the sixth with a solo homer for the Bucs while Wilson did the same two outs later for a 6-5 lead.
Hawkins then ripped a 1-2 pitch into the gap in right center to switch the lead again before the Bucs came back for the last time with three in the seventh.
Wilson got Rogers and Collin Lovell on back-to-back grounders to short before ending the game on a pop to second by Mossburg.
Cade Evans, Jacob Oliver and Morgan all had two hits for the Bucs with Morgan driving in three runs.
Gonzalez, the tough-luck loser who surrendered those final three runs, had three hits for the Seahawks. Blake Howard and Rogers both had a pair of hits.
BOYD-BUCHANAN 201 102 3 – 9 10 5
SILVERDALE 100 222 0 – 7 12 6
Pate, Wilson (5) and Price; Cook, Weiss (6), Gonzalez (6) and Spencer.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)