Baseball team loses three in a row to Cle Elum, Okanogan

The Cascade Kodiak baseball team started the season 3-0, but they’ve lost the past three games to even their record at 3-3. On March 27, Cascade hosted a non-league game against Cle Elum.
Cascade jumped out to a 7-1 lead only to lose 13-9. Coach Mike Kelly was saving his top arms for the upcoming double header at Okanogan. TJ Thompson and Tyler Miller pitched the first four innings, giving up just one run. Mason Kelly and Cody Enloe gave up six runs apiece in the final three innings.
“Through the early part of the schedule, it’s pretty clear who are top 3-4 are. TJ and Mason are both in that group, so it wasn’t like I was saving them. It was just the way the rotation worked out. They did not get a chance to play in the Omak double header previously,” Kelly said. “I thought both TJ, Mason and Cody threw it well, we just couldn’t catch it. They threw strikes. We didn’t give up many bases on balls. We ended up with 11 errors. The pitching wasn’t our downfall, it was our ability to defend.”
Cascade was forced to use Kelly and Thompson at catcher as the starter Ben Sunitsch played DH due to a sore arm. Kelly was 3-for-5 with an RBI.
“There is a definitive line between losing and getting beat. Getting beat is playing as well as you can, giving it all you got and if they have more runs that you, you got beat and you can live with that. We lost. We had the opportunity to win. I thought we were a class above that Cle Elum team, but we’re still young. We’re trying to figure out our identity and handle adversity and it slipped in that game,” Kelly said.
Last Saturday, Cascade dropped both ends of double header at Okanogan. Both games saw the Kodiaks give up big innings from which they could not recover.
“Both games were similar. We gave up a big inning in game one in the second inning. We gave up six runs in the inning. We scored in the first and second, then gave up six runs. It was a quick melt down. Haase lost control in the bottom of the second. We also had an error or two,” Kelly said. “TJ Thompson threw the last few innings and did well. We outhit them and outplayed them. We just gave up the big inning.”
Cascade lost the opener 7-5.  
Conrad Haase, the top pitcher for the Kodiaks, pitched two innings, giving up 6 runs, 1 earned with 4 strikeouts and 3 walks. Thompson pitched 4 innings, giving no earned runs, with 3 strikeouts and 4 walks. Thompson was 1-for-2 with 2 RBIs. Nate McMahon was 1-for-3 with 2 runs scored.
In game two, it was the big inning that did them in again.
“JJ Hall started and did well until we fell apart. Okanogan did swing the bat well. We gave up 7 runs in the bottom of the third. Just couldn’t quite recover. Tyler Miller came in and settle things down. Out of the 14 innings, we played 12 really hard,” Kelly said.
Cascade lost 11-5. The Kodiaks are 0-2 in league play and 3-3 overall. The Bulldogs are 3-1 in league play and 5-1 overall.
Cascade played 2B Colton at Big Bend College on April 3. Results were not available before press time. On Friday, they host Meridian and on Saturday, they host Blaine. Next Tuesday, they host Cashmere.
Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.