Enumclaw High’s baseball contingent cruised to a couple of shutout league victories, traveling to Peninsula April 21 to cleansheet the Seahawks, 4-0, and hosting Clover Park April 22, needing only five frames to eliminate the Warriors 11-0.
Enumclaw then hopped on the bus Friday evening to rendezvous under the Auburn Mountainview lamps, where a handful of Hornet base running miscues, watered down a great sixth inning, seven-K pitching performance by EHS ace Andrew Olson.
Enumclaw’s senior southpaw twirler was coming off a 13 strikeout performance at Peninsula and still pitched masterfully, relinquishing only four Lion knocks, all of which were extra base hits. Olson gave up a tandem of doubles, a triple and a home run, three free passes, while hitting a batter and the Hornets made a single error.
Still, Enumclaw lost 3-2, making its South Puget Sound League 3A record 10-3, to fall one game behind Auburn Mountainview in the standings as the regular season comes to a close.
The Hornets had a chance to pull even with the rival Lions, but instead fell behind them by one game in the standings with the setback, disappointing about 100 Hornet rooters who had made Friday night lights a priority.
In losing to AMHS for the second time this season, it wasn’t because it couldn’t get any offense going against pitcher Cody Hebner, who is arguably one of the better moundmen in the league.
Trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning thanks to RBI doubles by Enumclaw’s Kailen Bickler and Berent Hagen, Brandon Williams, who normally pitches, but was holding down the fort at third base in this crucial contest, helped out his battery-mate Hebner by clouting a two-run roundtripper over the leftcenter field barrier to furnish what would be the last runs scored in the pitcher’s duel.
Despite the fact, the Hornets had three runners gunned down at third base for various reasons, and one at second in the dynamic affair, Enumclaw coach Eric Fiedler fell short of apologizing for his bunch being aggressive on the basepath and consequently erasing the potential runs.
“We are going to be aggressive, that’s just the way we play,” Fiedler said. “But we did have two real bad base running mistakes that can probably be chalked up to youth and inexperience. Hopefully the kids concerned will learn from their mistakes and play it smarter next time. Every situation is different as far as the kids getting a green light from the coaches.
“Sometimes if they think they can advance on a passed ball or a wild pitch or a long sac fly or a single and or bunt – they look to see where the ball goes and then use their best judgement and either go for it or not.
“Things didn’t fall our way Friday against Auburn Mountainview obviously,” he continued. “That’s the way this game goes sometimes. But that doesn’t mean that we will discontinue being aggressive and not use the great team speed we have going for us. Because there are times that being aggressive can win games for you too. In this particular game we out hit the Lions 5-4. Auburn Mountainview made an error, Hebner walked one and then plunked two of our batters to put them aboard. So we had our opportunities, but we just could capitalize on them.”
Enumclaw’s baseballers must quickly put the past behind them as a three-league game week looms on the horizon. The Hornets were scheduled to host Lakes Tuesday, with the results of that battle coming too late to include here. Meanwhile, EHS finishes out the regular season traveling to the Cardinal cage of Franklin Pierce at 4 p.m. today, Wednesday, and then hosts the Battle of the River at 7 p.m. Friday with White River at Osborne Field.
