Style points are nice, but they really don’t count for much when it comes to winning a critical high school baseball game. Every coach in the business would take an ugly win over a pretty loss.
Take the Silverdale Seahawks baseball team for instance. They only got five hits on Tuesday evening and they even made a couple of errors along the way, but they were still able to hold off the King’s Academy Lions by a 4-3 final in the Division II, Class A regional at Silverdale.
With the win, Silverdale earns the right to host its next game on Saturday, although the opponent and game time are yet to be determined.
The Seahawks built a 6-1 lead in Monday’s game against Knoxville Webb only to lose a late-inning heartbreaker, 7-6.
Silverdale had a similar experience on Tuesday as they built a 4-0 lead through five innings against the Lions.
The visitors from Seymour made things interesting with a single run in the sixth before adding two more in the seventh, but with the potential tying run on third and the possible go-ahead run on second, Silverdale reliever got his fifth strikeout to end the game.
“As long as we win by one run, that’s all that matters,” said Silverdale coach Lance Rorex after his team had improved to 29-4-1 for the season.
“Last night was an emotional game for sure. Today’s game wasn’t pretty, but we were able to do some good things. Those guys have a good team, so it was important for us to scratch as many runs as possible. It was good to get Turner Junkins back on the mound for us as he’s been our guy all year and our success begins with him.
“It’s nice that we have tied a school record with 29 wins, but number 30 is the most important one because it means we get to keep playing. But I’m really proud of these guys for the way they battled today,” the personable coach added.
King’s Academy coach Mitch Turner felt like his team played well enough to win, but that doesn’t always matter in the sport of baseball.
“We will never play a perfect game, but I thought we outplayed them,” he told his team in his post-game comments.
“We’re not eliminated as we get to play again on Saturday, but this just proves we can play with the best,” he added after his team fell to 18-16 overall.
Junkins, who had a grand slam in Monday’s loss, was the only Silverdale player with two hits as the Seahawks finished with five total. He was also the winning pitcher after allowing no runs on five hits in five innings. He also had four strikeouts and a pair of walks as he left six Lions stranded on base.
Meanwhile, Silverdale took a 2-0 lead in the first inning and never trailed.
Junkins led off with a single before getting forced at second by a grounder from Brett Rogers. Sebastian Hanks walked. Rogers went to third when a pickoff throw sailed into centerfield before scoring on a double steal where Hanks was out in a rundown.
Cam Mullins walked and Ian Reagan singled before Bryson Cline’s infield single drove in Mullins with the second run.
Lane Meadows got hit by a pitch to start the Silverdale second and he advanced to second on a passed ball before going to third on a wild pitch. He scored on a sacrifice fly to center by Junkins.
Then in the fifth, Junkins led off with a single and advanced on another bad pickoff attempt. Mullins reached on the Lions’ second error of the inning and was caught in a rundown for the third out, but not before Junkins crossed the plate with Silverdale’s fourth run.
Turns out every one of those runs were needed to preserve the win.
King’s Academy got on the board with a single run in the sixth when Ethan Ridderstrap reached on an infield single to lead off before stealing second. He then scored on Anderson’s second hit of the game.
Then in the seventh with reliever Eric Boggess on the mound for the Seahawks, Juan Valle singled with one out and scored ahead of a two-run homer to center by Ridley Edington.
Nazhir Bergin reached on a Silverdale error with two outs and went to third on a single by Anderson, but they were stranded on second and third when Boggess got Jake Tipton on a swinging third strike to end the game.
While Junkins was the winning pitcher, Edington was the loser after allowing all four runs on four hits in five innings.
Junkins had two hits for the Seahawks while Reagan, Brody Lamb and Cline all had one apiece.
Edington and Anderson both had three hits for the Lions while Ridderstrap finished with two.
KING’S ACADEMY 000 001 2 – 3 10 3
SILVERDALE 210 010 x – 4 5 2
Edington, Ridderstrap (6) and Van Der Linder; Junkins, Boggess (6) and Reagan.
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)