Baseball: Shorewood bumps Oak Harbor out of 1st place

Shorewood combined the one-hit pitching of Kevin Moriarty with a 13-hit offense and errorless defense to defeat host Oak Harbor 6-2 in a battle for first-place in Wesco 3A baseball Friday, April 8.

The win left the Thunderbirds alone atop the standings with a 5-0 record, 8-2 overall, and broke the Wildcats' seven-game win streak. Oak Harbor is now 4-1 and 7-2-1.

The two teams go at it again Tuesday, April 12, at Shorewood at 4 p.m.

Shorewood, which is one of the state's top-ranked teams, received a stellar performance from Moriarty, a Gonzaga recruit. Moriarty, who is now 3-0, took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and left with one out in the seventh. He struck out nine, walked two and hit two batters

The Thunderbirds got to Oak Harbor starter Josh Evans early, scoring two runs on three hits in the first inning.

It appeared the 'Cats were going to get back into the game in their half of the first. Sam Wolfe led off and was plunked by Moriarty, then Jay Stout walked. But the uprising was short-lived as Moriarty mowed down 15 of the next 16 batters (Jack Richter was hit by a pitch in the fourth) until Wolfe rapped Oak Harbor's first hit with one out in the sixth inning.

Evans settled in and pitched well until the sixth. He allowed just three hits and one run from the second through the fifth innings and recorded five strikeout.

Shorewood cemented the game with a three-run sixth.

Oak Harbor picked up both its runs in the seventh. After an out, David Tillotson struck out but reached first when the third strike skipped by the catcher. Moriarty was then replaced by Josh Hawkinson, and Hawkinson got Austyn Walker to fly to right. He then walked Richter and Justin Counts to load the bases. Wolfe ripped a two-run single to produce the Wildcat runs.

Shorewood first baseman Trevor Mitsui, a University of Washington recruit who entered the game with a .722 batting average and eight home runs, went 4-for-5 with a double and RBI to lead the T-bird offense.

Contact Whidbey News Times Sports editor Jim Waller at jwaller@whidbeynewsgroup.com or 360-675-6611 ext. 5060.

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