Seagulls top Wildcats

Oak Harbor pitcher Johnny Encinas threw only 69 pitches in four plus innings of work and gave up just two earned runs, but defensive miscues Wednesday afternoon lead to Everett putting five additional runs on the board and the Seagulls defeated the Wildcats 7-2 in WesCo North baseball action.

The loss evens the Wildcats’ season record in the WesCo North at 3-3.

“I just thought we were flat today and we can’t afford to do that, we are right in the thick of the race,” coach Jim Waller said.

The Seagulls (2-7) drew first blood, pushing across a run with two outs in the top of the first inning.

After the first and second Everett batters were retired on consecutive pitches, Jake Frauenholtz and Brice Herrick collected back-to-back singles off Encinas.

Johnny Erickson worked the count to 2-2, and then dropped a bloop single into short center field in front of Chris Valencia to score Frauenholtz.

Everett made the score 3-0 putting up a pair of runs in the top of the fourth on a leadoff single by David Andre, a two-base throwing error on Bryce Gonzales’ sacrifice bunt, a sacrifice fly and a Michael Murray single.

Holding a 3-0 lead, Everett scored four more times in the top the fifth inning on a pair of infield errors, a sacrifice bunt, a walk, another infield error and a Murray single.

“We got them to hit ground balls, which is exactly what we wanted, we just didn’t make plays on them,” Waller said.

Frauenholtz held Oak Harbor’s hitters in check, retiring 10 batters in order, until Bennett Richter led the bottom of the fifth off by beating out an infield single.

The Wildcats’ two runs came in the bottom of the sixth when Chris Reilly’s hot shot handcuffed Murray, the Everett shortstop, for an infield hit.

Richter reached second base on an infield out and scored when Danny Lura lined a single to right field. Valencia walked and with two out, Richter singled through the hole at shortstop to score Jay Stout, who was running for Lura, with Oak Harbor’s second run.

“We were picked by other coaches in the league to finish eighth out of nine teams and we have a chance to prove them wrong,” Waller said. “We have to prove it on the field and we can’t play like we did today.”

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