Monday, March 18, 2024

Kodiaks drop league games to Chelan, Okanogan

Posted

It was a rough week for the young Cascade Kodiak baseball team. They lost home games to Chelan and Okanogan to fall to 2-3 in league and 3-4 overall. 

On March 28, Cascade hosted Chelan, a team that always seems to give them trouble. Cascade opened with 1-0 lead in the first as Dillon Samuel scored on a steal of home. Chelan tied the score at 1-1 in the top of the fourth on a pair of singles. 

The Kodiaks took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth as Mason Kelly walked, advanced to third on a Dane William’s double, then scored on a groundout. Chelan tied the score 2-2 on a bases loaded hit by pitch. 

The Goats took a 3-2 lead in the top of the sixth on three singles, a hit batter and a walk. Chelan went up 4-2 in the seventh on a pair of singles. Cascade opened the seventh with a Max Gilbert double and Conrad Hasse single. 

Gilbert scored to cut the lead to 4-3 on a Hunter Reinhart ground out. With the tying run a second, Quinn Ashcraft grounded into a double play to end the game. 

“Two young teams that are playing pretty well. We made one or two more mistakes than they did. That is for the entire ball game. We are making mistakes at the wrong time. We had opportunity to win it again. We put a ton of balls in play, but we couldn’t string hits together,” said Cascade Head Coach Mike Kelly. 

Gilbert pitched 5 innings, giving 2 earned runs on 5 hits, with 7 strikeouts and 2 walks. Hasse pitched part of an inning, giving up 1 earned run and 2 walks. Reinhart pitched 2 innings, giving up 1 earned run on 4 hits. 

Samuel was 2-for-3 with a run. Williams was 2-for-3 with an RBI. Gilbert was 1-for-3 with a run and RBI. 

Last Saturday, Cascade hosted Okanogan for a double header. The first game was tremendous pitching duel between Cascade senior hurler, Max Gilbert and Bulldog freshman Connor Ashworth. 

Gilbert got off to a shaky start, giving up a single and double as Okanogan led 1-0. From then on, Gilbert settled down and put away the Bulldogs. The game remained 1-0 into the sixth when Okanogan tripled with two outs and scored on a passed ball. 

The Bulldogs took a 3-0 in the seventh on a pair of singles. In the seventh, Hasse walked and came around to score on a Reinhart single. Ben Sunitsch reached on error and scored on a Samuel single to cut the lead to 3-2. 

Okanogan brought in Alex Nelson to pitch. He induced Kelly to groundout to end the game. 

“The young Ashworth kid did a good job of throwing strikes. We’re not hitting ball hard right now. I think he throws a very hittable ball. I’m hoping we get the opportunity to improve and hit balls hard,” Kelly said. “Max was really good. He made a mistake in the first inning, but outside of that, he shut it down. We played good defense, but we made some costly errors that allowed their runners to advance. We just couldn’t recover from it.”

Cascade had their chances with six runners left on base. 

“I think we have a pretty darn good lineup. We have three seniors with some experience and have had success in the past. We just haven’t hit our stride yet. I think we will. It’s still early in the season. We’ll find our groove offensively. The defensive miscues were rough,” Kelly said. 

Hasse pitched game two. Okanogan scored in the third with two outs and a single and triple, and scored again on a passed ball. The Bulldogs took a 3-0 lead in the fourth, against with two outs, on a walk and a single. 

In the top of the fifth, Reinhart came onto pitch. He was roughed up for eight runs as Okanogan took an 11-0 lead. The game ended in the bottom of the fifth, due to the mercy rule. 

“Conrad got into too many surplus counts, which extended him. He had to come out. Hunter came out and threw strikes. I don’t know if it was the wind or sun, but we didn’t have great outfield-infield fly ball communication,” Kelly said. “Seemed like everything they hit in the air was finding a spot where we didn’t have a guy. It got away from us.”

Hasse pitched 4 innings, giving up 2 earned runs on 3 hits with 2 strikeouts and 1 walk. Reinhart pitched one inning, giving 3 earned runs on 7 hits with 1 walk. 

Cascade played at Colton on April 4. Results were not available before press time. The Kodiaks host Meridian on Friday, Blaine on Saturday and then play at Cashmere on April 11. So a tough stretch of games in coming up. “We are a young team. I’m going to try make sure I keep that in perspective. We have three guys with any varsity experience. Outside of that, there’s a bunch guys, without a full JV schedule, who did not play a bunch,” Kelly said. “With the freshman we’re playing, they are doing a really good job, but they don’t have big time varsity experience. We’re not pounding the ball yet with those young guys, but we will.”

With a young team, Kelly said there are going to be some ups and downs. 

“This season is going to be a mystery. We’ll have super competitive one-run game, then we’ll have an 11-0, five inning game. That’s youth and inexperience. We’re going to be good, whether it is this  year or next year. I just hope, for the seniors, we can get things going this year. I hope we can play the best we can because they are three really great kids,” Kelly said. 

Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here